A young man from rural China struggles to make good in Beijing in this drama, which suggests an updated and relocated variation on the neorealist classic Ladri di Biciclette. Guei (Cui Lin) is a teenager who arrives in the big city looking for work; he and a handful of other youngsters are hired as bicycle messengers, with their employer giving them new mountain bikes under the condition that they're paid ten yuan for each message they deliver, and the bicycles are theirs once they've made 58 trips. Guei discovers the job is not an easy one, as he deals with the complexity of the huge city, confusion over who gets what message, and the condescending attitude Beijing residents often display toward the new arrivals. Guei is determined to make good and is close to owning his bike when it's stolen; Guei's boss tells him the only way he can keep is job is if he can find the bicycle, which, in a city the size of Beijing, is no easy task. Against all odds, Guei finds the bicycle, but it's now in the hands of Jian (Li Bin), who claims he got it at a second-hand shop and isn't about to give it up. Guei steals the bike back from Jian, but now has to deal with the teenaged tough and his roughneck friends. Shiqisuide Danche was produced as part of a series of films from young Chinese directors called "Tales of Three Cities," co-produced by French and Taiwanese companies. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review by All Movie Guide
All Movie Guide
is neutral about it.
The inevitable comparison of Beijing Bicycle to
Vittorio De Sica's neorealist classic The Bicycle Theif isn't inappropriate. Both films focus on a working-class male whose bicycle is crucial to his employment, which, in turn, is crucial to his survival. And both depict a city in transition. In De Sica's film, it's Rome rebuilding after World War II; in this story, the backdrop is Beijing, with gleaming skyscrapers and video arcades, not to mention economic opportunities for an immigrant class. Guei (Cui Lin) is a country boy whose determination to make a living as a bicycle messenger is matched by his determination to recover his stolen bike against immense odds. But there is a second striver in this story; Jian (Li Bin), a high-school kid resentful of his father's continual postponement of the purchase of a bicycle. (There are neatly portrayed glimpses of Jian's home life, involving a second marriage for both parents and a favored younger stepsister.) Jian needs a bike to fit in with his buddies as well as to romance a classmate. The middle section of the drama sags a bit with too many scenes of back-and-forth possession of the bike. And the inconclusive ending may leave some viewers indifferent to the characters' fates, but it's possible to see it as reflecting a measure of integrity. The film may prove to be a time capsule in more ways than one, as reports out of Shanghai about authorities curbing bicycle use in that city will surely lead to a Chinese cityscape that will look very different from the one depicted here. ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide