BEIJING BICYCLE - Good Movie Weepy

This Chinese film ( Shiqi sui de dan che, 2001) was recently aired on
our Public TV Channel Arte and I was able to catch it. I found it very
moving, and would recommend it to anyone who can understand how a bike
can be the love of someone's life.

I would describe it as a star-crossed romance, in which the object, of
pure, respectful love on the one hand, of possessive lust on the other,
is a bicycle rather than a person.

Gue is a poor boy who has just arrived in Beijing from a country
village. He gets a job as a courier. As a worktool, he is presented with
a beautiful VTT, well above his means. But he is told that he can pay
for the bike in installments with his work, and that it will eventually
become his.

It is love at first sight. Gue is transformed by his wonderful new job
and bike. Responsible, fast, hard-working, he drives himself to the
utmost in order to obtain the bike. He is like a young fiance trying to
set himself up financially for his marriage. But the day before the
"wedding", the bike is stolen. He fails an important delivery for the
first time, and loses his job.

The new possessor of the bike is Jian, a bratty prep-school student.
Jian hangs out with a band of macho rowdies whose status in the pecking
order is determmined by the cost and beauty of their bikes. They all
have BMX tendencies, and treat their fine bikes roughly, racing and
jumping them around debris-strewn building sights.

Meanwhile, Gue is so distraught at the loss of his VTT and job, and so
stubbourn and insistent, that he manages to persuade the boss of the
firm to take him back if he can find the bike. The boss laughs at him -
there are hundreds of such bikes in Beijing. But Gue has made a secret
mark on the VTT and would recognize her among millions. He sets out on
his quest.

Of course he finds his bike, but how to wrest her back from Jian? There
is not only the brat himself, who is of a much higher social class than
Gue, to deal with, but the whole band of rowdies that support him.

I'll not spoil it for you. Rent the film, and keep a box of kleenex
handy.

EFR
Ile de France

Didn't PeeWee Herman play in this? =A7;-3)

"May you have the wind at your back.
And a really low gear for the hills!"

Chris Zacho ~ "Your Friendly Neighborhood Wheelman"

Chris'Z Corner
http://www.geocities.com/czcorner

I also liked this film, though I don't think I found it particularly to be
a tear-jerker. It provides an interesting insight into Chinese society
more than anything about bikes. It is no Tour de France film, though
bikes, and how they can empower, form a major part of the film. It is
more about the clash of cultures within China, in which the bicycle plays
a part.

Definitely worth seeing.

--

David L. Johnson

__o | There is always an easy solution to every human problem - neat,
_`\(,_ | plausible, and wrong. --H.L. Mencken
(_)/ (_) |

In article ,
Elisa Francesca Roselli writes:

....

Of course he finds his bike, but how to wrest her back from Jian? There
is not only the brat himself, who is of a much higher social class than
Gue, to deal with, but the whole band of rowdies that support him.

Wow! It sounds like the film is very rich with metaphor.
I'll keep my eyes open for it. Thanks for the tip!

I'll not spoil it for you.

May many blessings descend gently upon you :-)


cheers,
Tom

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Above address is just a spam midden.
I'm really at: tkeats [curlicue] vcn [point] bc [point] ca

Thanks Arte. Sorry I missed the movie, when was it shown ?

I did some cycling in Beijing 12 years ago. There was nothing like a
mountain bike there at the time. Just 1-speed clunkers without brakes. You
were riding some 10 kph and had to use your feet to stop. Parking fee for
the bike was about 1 cent. There were frail women riding trikes loaded
with 200 lb of coal, painfully pushing their load on top of bridges.

Cycling was really the best way to see the city. Cabs, even for me rich
European, were a bit expensive. Buses were far too complicated without
reading Chinese. Bikes were perfect. I hear they are now clearing the
roads to give more space to cars. Sigh.

Jacques

On Fri, 06 Feb 2004 23:04:00 +0100, Jacques Moser wrote:

Cycling was really the best way to see the city. Cabs, even for me rich
European, were a bit expensive. Buses were far too complicated without
reading Chinese. Bikes were perfect. I hear they are now clearing the
roads to give more space to cars. Sigh.

Actually, that "sigh" is a part of the movie. See it.

--

David L. Johnson

__o | The lottery is a tax on those who fail to understand mathematics.
_`\(,_ |
(_)/ (_) |

Elisa Francesca Roselli wrote:
This Chinese film ( Shiqi sui de dan che, 2001) was recently aired on
our Public TV Channel Arte and I was able to catch it. I found it very
moving, and would recommend it to anyone who can understand how a bike
can be the love of someone's life.

I would describe it as a star-crossed romance, in which the object, of
pure, respectful love on the one hand, of possessive lust on the other,
is a bicycle rather than a person.

Gue is a poor boy who has just arrived in Beijing from a country
village. He gets a job as a courier. As a worktool, he is presented with
a beautiful VTT, well above his means. But he is told that he can pay
for the bike in installments with his work, and that it will eventually
become his.

It is love at first sight. Gue is transformed by his wonderful new job
and bike. Responsible, fast, hard-working, he drives himself to the
utmost in order to obtain the bike. He is like a young fiance trying to
set himself up financially for his marriage. But the day before the
"wedding", the bike is stolen. He fails an important delivery for the
first time, and loses his job.

The new possessor of the bike is Jian, a bratty prep-school student.
Jian hangs out with a band of macho rowdies whose status in the pecking
order is determmined by the cost and beauty of their bikes. They all
have BMX tendencies, and treat their fine bikes roughly, racing and
jumping them around debris-strewn building sights.

Meanwhile, Gue is so distraught at the loss of his VTT and job, and so
stubbourn and insistent, that he manages to persuade the boss of the
firm to take him back if he can find the bike. The boss laughs at him -
there are hundreds of such bikes in Beijing. But Gue has made a secret
mark on the VTT and would recognize her among millions. He sets out on
his quest.

Of course he finds his bike, but how to wrest her back from Jian? There
is not only the brat himself, who is of a much higher social class than
Gue, to deal with, but the whole band of rowdies that support him.

I'll not spoil it for you. Rent the film, and keep a box of kleenex
handy.

EFR
Ile de France

I once saw a real tear jerker of a movie produced by the Shanghai Motion
Picture Studios. I can't recall the name of the film. But it was
definitely late 60s stuff. Like all Chinese communist propaganda of the
time and I suspect the "politically correct" present, the plot is always
of class struggle. The Shanghai Motion Picture movie I saw was about a
peasant class family who rented a small plot of land for subsistence
farming. They would sell whatever surplus to save for a rainy day. Well
the landlord was a rich peasant who was in cahoots with the local
authority and triads. He kept raising the rent until it got to a point
where they had to sell their seed stock to pay the rent and the local
tax. The poor peasants had a lovely daughter who had thoughts of
marrying her sweetheart. They were by Chinese standards the epitome of
filial piety. Alas, the landlord who also ran the local brothel had his
eyes on her and lusted after her with great zeal. Well to make a long
story short. The poor peasants daughter had to become a prostitute at
the landlords brothel. If she didn't do it her parents would starve. Her
fiancé tries to be the hero but gets clubbed to death by the local triad
thugs. Drought hits the area and her parants starve to death anyway.
Moral of story. Greed is bad. Private ownership is evil and the
Communist Party saves the day.

Sorry, way off topic.
Kenny Lee

Sorry, way off topic.
Kenny Lee

Yeah, way off. Specially as the so-called "communist party" in China is as
communist as Margaret Thatcher, while still developing democratic
principles in the way Mao was...

Jacques Moser wrote:

Sorry, way off topic.
Kenny Lee


Yeah, way off. Specially as the so-called "communist party" in China is as
communist as Margaret Thatcher, while still developing democratic
principles in the way Mao was...


Haven't been to the PRC since the gang of four got put away. Would be
interesting to understand what the Communist Party of China stands for
these days and to see what moral legitimacy they have, if any.

Kenny Lee

In article , Elisa Francesca Roselli
writes:


This Chinese film ( Shiqi sui de dan che, 2001) was recently aired on
our Public TV Channel Arte and I was able to catch it. I found it very
moving, and would recommend it to anyone who can understand how a bike
can be the love of someone's life.


I saw this film a few months back and consider it a so-so adaptation of
Vittorio De Sica's 1947 The Bicycle Thief. Perhaps the Chinese version I saw
was cut and poorly translated. My 2001 Movie and Video Guide says the Italian
version was awarded a special oscar before the Oscars had any foreign film
categories.