Into the Unfair World on Modern China

The past films our class has viewed have been numerous. Some have been exciting and fun, while others have been depressing and others plain boring. None of the previous viewed films have affected me in the way Wang Xiaoshuai's 2001 Beijing Bicycle has. I enjoyed the film, and would encourage pre teens, teenagers, and young adults to watch this film. It is a classic coming of age film that leaves the audience wondering about the big picture.

The film follows the story of two boys, both from poor backgrounds and around the same age. Guei is from the countryside. He is the most innocent of victims in the plot. On the other hand the other boy, Jian, is a confusing character.

Guei is hard working, diligent, and stubborn. When his bike is stolen he searches endlessly to recover his bike, because without it he cannot work as a messenger boy. The bike represents his livelyhood, his status in the city of Beijing. Finally, he finds his bike, only to have it taken back by Jian and his gang. Through most of the film Jian is simply trying to get his bike back and make a living in order to survive.

Jian is a student, intelligent yet stubborn and violent. He is also from a poor family and is constantly looked over by his father and stepfamily. He steals bikes, then beats Guei after being found out, and hits Da Huan on the head with a brick. Despite these incidents I found myself more inclined to Jian. True Guei was the model citizen, aside from hitting a boy with the stone incident. However, I just found Jian more understandable. His situation is similar to mine. We both feel like we are being overlooked by our fathers and our stepfamily. We both tend to lash out in unpredictable ways, although I am not nearly as violent.

I believe the reason why Jian is more convincing is we get to see more of his life than Guei's. Guei is just a boy from the country, no background is given what so ever, but Jian you get to see his story and; therefore, understand where he is coming from.

The film was a story of two boys. One from the country and one from the city. Both had difficult financial circumstances, yet they live in a huge metropolitan city. I believe this film was developed to illustrate the ordinary lives of the middle to lower class Chinese citizens. The film gave Beijing a more somber tone, the city is beautiful, but there is still poverty and disadvantaged people. Overall I enjoyed the film.