Beijing Bicycle A-
By Kage Alan

It’s extremely difficult not to be reminded of De Sica’s “The Bicycle Thief” when watching “Beijing Bicycle”. “Thief” was an Italian neo-realistic classic that relied on non-actors and very common incidents to drive the film along. While “Bicycle” has some similarities, it consciously updates the social and economic situations to fit modern day China while still demonstrating the universality of what people will do in circumstances they perceive as desperate. There are three major characters in “Beijing Bicycle”. The first is a country boy named Guei (Cui Lin) who manages to land a job as a bicycle messenger. The company gives him a haircut, uniform and a bike that he must work to pay off before he can call it his own. The second character is Jian (Lee Bing), an extremely intelligent post high school student who needs a bike to meet the status expected of him by his peers. Unfortunately, Jian’s father has only delivered empty promises to him about buying a bike. The third character is the bicycle itself.

While out on a delivery, Guei’s bike is stolen, leaving him heartbroken and without a job. Meanwhile, Jian, tired of his father’s broken promises, steals money his family has been saving and buys a secondhand bike, the very same bike that used to belong to Guei. Both boys need the bike, one for his livelihood and the other for status, yet both reasons are portrayed as being equally important and valid. Guei decides to steal his bike back, which only incites Jian to come after him with friends and retaliate. It’s a huge tug of war and it’s not long before the truth about the bike’s origins come out. Since they both need the bike, they come to a grudging compromise of trading off every other day. While not exactly ideal, it does solve the immediate problem. When Jian watches his girlfriend running with another young man with a bike befitting of his status, his primal urges get the better of him and he plunges both himself and Guei into a violent confrontation with the rival biker.

“Beijing Bicycle” is a beautifully shot movie that showcases a great deal of the city that we might not otherwise have seen as tourists. Not only are the busier and more technologically advanced areas shown, but so are the lesser developed areas. It offers a unique comparison. All of the actors make the situations look and feel genuine and the violence, which can be quite brutal, will have you gripping your seat. The film will leave you questioning just how profound a simple thing such a bicycle can be to people we don’t know in a place we may have never been.