Shiqi sui de dan che

When you read a synopsis of Beijing Bicycle, it may remind you of Vittorio de Sica's 1948 masterpiece The Bicycle Thieves. A poor man, having recently come to the city from the country, wins a job at a bicycle courier business, and, on a delivery, gets his bike stolen. He then proceeds to search the city of Beijing to retrieve it. Luckily, it quickly veers away from being a simple update of that classic story. He finds the alleged thief, a high school kid, and steals it back. For the first hour or more, the bike moves back and forth between them. The two characters are compared and contrasted, and it works as an effective class study.

The direction and editing are particularly great in the film. The climax involves two intersecting chases, and it is one of the best stages sequences I've ever seen. There are a couple of problems, small ones for me, but perhaps big ones for critics and audiences. The high school kid is extraordinarily unlikable. A person behind me declared loudly, "What a brat!" And he is. I personally don't mind if a character is unsympathetic (although we are asked to sympathize with him, I believe). My own biggest problem is that the ending is slightly unsatisfactory. There's not much closure. Still, Beijing Bicycle is an excellent film. 9/10.

While watching this movie I couldn't help but be reminded of The Bicycle Thief (Ladri di biciclette). This is a story of determination of two young men. One works hard for a bicycle courier and on the day he would have earned the bike, it is stolen. The other steals money from his family and buys a bike so that he can impress a girl. Yes, it's the same bike. Amazingly, Guo is able to find his stolen bike, but that isn't the end of his troubles. I couldn't help but feel for all the crap he has to put up with, especially since all he wanted was to be a hard worker. Yet, like us all, life threw him a curveball and he does everything in his power to deal with the situation. *** (Out of 4)

"Beijing Bicycle" (Chinese, 2002): This is one of the purest films I've seen all year. Don't believe the blurb written about it: two boys learn sharing through the use of one bicycle. The blurb couldn't be MORE WRONG. This story has one of the smoothest, most linear, singularly focused goals I've experienced in a film along with "The Field", which I rewatched earlier this year. There are no plot twists, no what-ifs, no "oh my god, I had no idea THAT was happening!" moments. "Beijing Bicycle" is a simple, yet symbolic film about a young man who comes to the big city, gets a job as a bicycle messenger, and things quickly go from uncomfortable, to bad, to awful, to worse it seems. "Guei" (the messenger) wasn't raised to recognize the ways of a metropolis, which tries to chew him up piece by piece. We get to "know" other characters who we believe (along with Guei) ARE who they appear to be. "Beijing Bicycle" has to be the finest expression of what I would expect to be the current set of fears by those in China who see their future as an unknown, with the "replacement model" being the U.S.A.. This story expresses the huge doubts caused by the loss of Mao and the Communist way of life. Even if it WASN'T perfect, they were familiar with it, and many of these "new world" things did not happen THEN. Those who are (literally) "buying" into the free market concepts, are losing their pride, identities, and souls. Watch for the slow, steady transitions of situations and characters. Watch for the symbols of decadence, greed, unhealthy living, improper greed, corruption, and sadness – all within a small group of teens.

Browsing through some of the previous comments, it seems many viewers take the movie primarily as an allegory of class clash in Beijing. While the movie does state the contrast with emphasis, it's much more interesting as a story about teens. The title translates literally to "seventeen years' bicycle."

The story is just that. Guo is a young man who earned a bicycle and promptly has it stolen. Through luck and perseverance, he finds it in the possession of Jian, a high school student. Trouble ensues.

I grew up in Taiwan, and I remember kids doing incredibly cruel things to each other. Not so much gunning down classmates but there were plenty of physical and emotional violence. This movie is a powerhouse of insight into the psyche of teenagers. Contemporary Hollywood pumps out teenage movies by the dozen each year, and most simply gloss over the amount of pain and awkwardness adolescence can bring. Beijing Bicycle, on the other hand, can serve as an instructional manual for any high-school bully wannabes on how to reduce the stammering geek next door to a shell of a man.

It's therefore understandable that the movie can be very difficult to watch at moments. Guo suffers humiliation after humiliation, and at times I wondered in frustration what it would take to get him to swing back (the ending provides some answer to that, I think). There is some humor in the movie, and Guo does have the resources to prevail occasionally. If you can stand two main characters respectively passive and oblivious, the story is an incredibly touching one about being young.

I really enjoyed watching this film for a second time recently. A story of a young peasant from the outskirts of town (Beijing) struggle against societal oppositions, finding work, keeping bike from preying thieves, and learning survival skills. Beijing is not an easy town to tame!

At times very funny! At times very violent, makes you want to turn your head in disgust. The violence is to prove a point. No good comes from it, whatsoever!

I think this film is well made. The pace is smooth. The acting is superb. I especially like the acting of the employer who hires the main character as a messenger boy. He is what you would call a prudent business man with heart!

Please take some time out of your day and watch this tense movie with moralistic themes: rich versus poor, right versus wrong, bullying versus stubbornness. A winner in my book!