movie's 411
{march 15, 2003}
>> BEIJING BICYCLE
Starring: Lin Cui, Xun Zhou
Director: Xiaoshuai Wang
a mandarin movie about a 16-yr old little guei who just came from the village to the city of beijing. new to being in a large city, he was pretty amazed of what's going on. he applied for a job as a messenger where he got a bike and cleaned up. the manager of the company goes on and on by saying that how they look reflect to the image of the company. the bike was a mountain bike, a merely good one.. but not necessarily free. each of the messengers have to pay the cost of the bike and the company deducted the percentage amount of their check until it's all paid up and it'll be theirs. one day shoart from having the bike as his own, guei lost his bike while looking for a man in spa. he got fired from his job because without the bike, they can't count on him. so he promised the manager that he would look for the bike all over beijing and when he find it, he want to go work there again. because of his determination, the manager gave him his words. innocently, little guei knows that he can find the bike because he already put a mark on a secret par of the bike. little did he know that there are so many bikes in beijing.. a place where a bike is one of the main means of transportation. so he looks for his bike, day and night.
turns out the bike was now with a school boy. him and his gang are into doing tricks with mountain biking. his parents had promised him a bike since he was young, but never bought him one. noone knows how he got the bike. little guei follows him and took the bike from him and got caught. he got beaten up, but he doesn't give up. to make the story short, they finally agree to share the bike. but this school boy has a problem of his own and dragged guei in it.
the story is very simple. but i hate the way it was being told. there are too many static scenes, no expression. i think the director is trying to make the movie feels like one of those 'ironic' indie movie, but i fail to feel that. a lotta time i find myself screaming so that guei can open his damn mouth and get his bike back. after all it was his in the first place. there are hardly any dialogue. and it's funny to see how unreal it is, because when somebody was being beaten up in one of the crowded alley.. everyone would just stop what they were doing and just stared. no dialogue, no sound, no expression. i guess less doesn't always mean more.
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