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Beijing Bicycle [2002] (REGION 1) (NTSC)


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Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review

Beijing Bicycle kicks off like an updated Chinese reworking of the 1948 Italian neo-realist classic Bicycle Thieves: a worker, dependent on his bike for his job, has it stolen and doggedly sets out to get it back. But pretty soon Wang Xiaoshuai's film mutates into something more elemental: a battle of wills between peasant lad Guei, original owner of the bike, and Jian, a surly urban schoolkid who claims to have bought it second-hand. For both the bike is status: for Guei it secures him his job as a courier, while for Jian it lets him keep up with his peers and chat up the girl he fancies. Each sees himself as the rightful owner and neither will give way, so the bike swaps hands back and forth, stolen and re-stolen, as the duel waxes increasingly personal.

There's a diverting subplot about a beautiful, stylishly dressed girl glimpsed by Guei who turns out be something other than she seems, but essentially the battle over the bike is the meat of the film. The fascination of Beijing Bicycle--perhaps especially for non-Chinese viewers--is its portrait of present-day Beijing as a buzzing, high-pressure, neo-capitalist boomtown, impersonal and seemingly as lawless as any Wild West frontier burg. At no point, in all the thefts and counter-thefts and mounting violence, does anyone think to call the police--everyone is left to fight his own battles. Wang, one can't help suspecting, is slipping in a hint of social criticism in this vision of an uncaring society where possessions are all that matter.

On the DVD: Beijing Bicycle on disc has the original theatrical trailer (the French version, oddly enough), filmographies for the director and four of his lead actors, notes on the film by Nick Bradshaw and trailers for other Metro Tartan foreign-language DVD releases. The transfer's in the full anamorphic widescreen of the original, with good Dolby Digital sound. --Philip Kemp


A DEEP HUMAN ODDYSSEY
Review date: 2007-11-07 Rating: 8 out of 10

Beijing Bicycle by Sixth Generation director Wang Xiaoshuai is an unsettling look at modern China in transition that depicts the relationship between two young men of different social status, both yearning for acceptance and stubbornly determined to succeed. Guei (Cui Lin) is an unexpressive working class 17-year old who has come to Beijing to find work, while Jian (Li Bin), is a sophisticated middle-class student, desperate to belong, seeking approval from his biker friends and his beautiful girlfriend Gin (Zhao Yiwel). The film explores the consequences when Guei's bicycle is stolen and ends up in Jian's hands. The bicycle represents an escape for both from the competitive pressures of their lives. For Guei, it is a means of access to a job, an income, and survival. For Jian, it is the pathway to being "cool" and being in the in-group, much like what the flashy sports car represents to young men in Western countries.

As the film opens, a group of boys are being interviewed for a job as a courier. Enticed by the prospect of owning a silver mountain bike, Guei takes the job and begins to save money to buy the bike, given to him as a loan (the bike is his once he has earned 700 yuan, which is about $85). Out of his element in the bewildering city, Guei runs into an awkward situation almost immediately when he makes a delivery in a luxury hotel and is directed to the gym where he is forced to strip for a shower before he can deliver his package. He is then asked to pay for the shower when he leaves but does not have enough money. When his bike is stolen just one day before he can become the owner, Guei's job is threatened.

Xie Jian as Guei's manager is both abrasive and compassionate and offers to take Guei back to work if he can find his bike. In a city where bicycles are still the most common means of transportation, against all odds he sets out to find it. The film is about the bicycle but is also about the city of Beijing. Guei's search for the bicycle takes him into all corners of the city. With an original score by Felix Wang and magnificent cinematography by Jie Liu, the city comes alive with streets littered with traffic juxtaposed with mysterious alleys where old men play board games or do Tai Chi. Wang adds the little touches as well such as two friends sharing a toothbrush and a single spigot of water in an alley serving an entire neighborhood.

Like De Sica's The Bicycle Thief, the stolen bicycle is central to the story, but here it is not about the hunt but about the consequences that follow from its recovery. When the student Jian is found with the bike, both he and Guei assert ownership and the bike is stolen and reclaimed by both boys several times, each time ending in a scuffle with Jian's friends. In a powerful confrontation with his father, Jian, in a rage against his father for reneging on his promise to buy him a bike, finally admits to stealing his father's money to purchase the bike himself at the flea market after it was fenced. The two boys are pitted against each other but mutual need brings them together and allows them to work out a compromise by alternating the days when each can use the bike. Eventually a serious confrontation takes place that escalates into a startling conclusion.

Beijing Bicycle is a deeply human odyssey that, while somewhat repetitive, never loses its rhythm. Though there is little dialogue and the characters communicate mostly with body language, long silences, and facial expressions, the actors perform their roles with astonishing authenticity. Parts of the film are emotionally upsetting, but there is also a sweet innocence at play. Jian acts like a typical adolescent-surly, angry with his parents, shy with girls, audacious and impetuous one minute, and then needy and contrite the next. In one of the concluding scenes, as a group of punks chase two boys through a an older section of Beijing; one says to the other, "What are you doing? This doesn't concern you." The other replies, "I don't know my way out." In today's new China, caught between the traditions of an ancient culture and the new urban reality, young people are having trouble finding their way out.

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Reviews


Almost too painful to watch !!!
Review date: 2007-05-03 Rating: 4 out of 10

I really hope that this film doesn't represent Chinese society at the moment. We are presented with too many uncaring folks who sit by and watch as teenagers are beyond cruel and uncaring to one another. Beating each other up almost to the point of death over a bicycle. I'm a mother of a 17 year old and I found this film difficult to take in. A very draining experience indeed !!!

Hard to fathom, a little dull
Review date: 2006-01-22 Rating: 6 out of 10

Although an admirer of Asian cinema (particularly Korean), to be honest I didn't really understand this film. Perhaps the symbolism of the bicycle simply doesn't translate for a westerner, but it simply seemed like a couple of pig-headed guys fighting over a bicycle while failing to communicate with the women in their lives (the fact that the women barely spoke didn't help matters). The film had some good comic moments (at least I thought they were comic), but the ending was oddly depressing rather than moving. At least the whole thing was bizarre enough to be memorable, which is always a plus-point in my book.

I hope I'm not being too rude if I suggest that the movie could safely be renamed "Two Stubborn Fatheads And A Mountain Bike" ...

great cinema
Review date: 2004-12-02 Rating: 8 out of 10

This is a very well made, insightful film. Although not without some flaws, this easily outshines some better known films from this region.

Well-paced, great photography, pure cinema.

the most promising film to come out of the PRC for a while.
Review date: 2003-05-21 Rating: 10 out of 10

Beijing Bicycle is one of the finest films to come out of mainland China for a while. Maybe its not as technically and artistically flawless as many 5th generation films, like 'red lantern' or 'farewell my concubine', but its an undeniably charming and beautiful fairytale, with deep-rooted moral grounding, that will enchant everyone. Zhou Xun is fantastic, as always, and newcomer Li Bin gives an extraordinary performance. Beijing Bicycle proves that there's a bright future for the 6th generation, who thankfully refrain from directing everything at critisising the government and concentrate on pure cinema, and it will be a flagship of its genre.

Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Bin Li
Yuanyuan Gao
Shuang Li
Xun Zhou
Lin Cui

Creators:
Lin Cui (Primary Contributor)
Xun Zhou (Primary Contributor)
Xiaoshuai Wang (Writer)
Anne Devauchelle (Producer)
Dong-ming Shi (Producer)
Eric Lagesse (Producer)
Danian Tang (Writer)
Hsiao-ming Hsu (Writer)
Peggy Chiao (Writer)

Director(s):

Recording label: Columbia TriStar
Manufacturer: Columbia TriStar
EAN: 9780767882125
Binding: DVD
ISBN: 0767882121
Number of items: 1
Format: Colour, DTS Surround Sound, DVD-Video, Letterboxed, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC,
Release date: 2002-07-09
Universal product code (UPC): 043396078277
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Region code: 1
Running time: 113 minutes
Theatrical release date: 2001
Language: English (Subtitled)
Language: Mandarin Chinese (Original Language)

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