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Beijing Bicycle (2001)

The place where this movie had its first official screening, was in Germany during the 2001 Berlinale Awards. It got re-released for the general public in 2002 in Germany. Living in Cologne, a city in western Germany, I only saw it getting screened in two or three theatres. I always wanted to go and watch it in theatre, but I never got down to doing so. When it was out of theatres, I really regretted that I didn't just go and watch it. I e-mailed the German distributer for this movie asking when, or better said if, it was going to be released on DVD in Germany. Their reply was that they didn't even plan on publishing it on DVD. Having watched the trailer over at Apple so many times, I desperately needed to watch this movie.

Now, 2 years after its original release, I finally got my hands on a UK Tartan copy of this film and I was stunned after seeing such an extraordinary drama. This movie focusses on teenagers lives, but not in the way people are used to from the US wave of teenager movies such as Scream, American Pie or Road Trip. Beijing Bicycle is not your average teenager movie. Most of these movies are about money, college, killing or sex. The director Xiaoshuai Wang however stages one problem of peoples' everyday life in China, and then focusses on it. In this case it is the story of two teenager boys and their need for a bike. This might sound remarkable, which it probably is for a movie plot, but it has been wonderfully transmuted into a motion picture.

The film starts off with village boy Guo Liangui getting a job at a courier company. The vehicle he gets for transporting small packages and envelopes is a simple mountain bike. It might sound simple, but you have to consider that Beijing is one huge city. The map that is shown in the beginning of the movie made me marvel in disbelief. Because the delivery boys are promissed that they could buy the bikes once they have completed their first few deliveries, Guo Liangui tags his bike by putting a scratch onto the rod underneath the saddle.

While having been delayed in a hotel during a delivery job, Guo Liangui's bicycle gets stolen and so he looses his job, because he wasn't able to deliver an envelope in time. The manager however promises to re-employ him if he shall find the bike again, which seems impossible in such a huge city.

The plot moves to Jian, another teenager boy, who grew up in the city and who attends a private school in Beijing. Being the only one of his classmates who is member of a poor family, he is tired of always being the one without a bicycle. I don't want to spoil the story for you so I am not going to tell you the reason why we get to see him with Guo Liangui's mountain bike, with which he performs stunts alongside his friends. When leaving the bike a few metres behind in order to get closer to his girlfriend, Jian recognises that somebody is stealing "his" bicycle. This somebody is Guo Liangui who luckily found his bike. After chasing him through Beijing, Jian finally manages to take the bike back with the help of his friends. Guo Liangui however is of stubborn nature and constantly tries to get his bike back. However, it seems like Jian is really convinced that the bike is his property. It turns out that he bought it from a second hand bicycle stand. Both youngsters feel that the bike is their own and although Jian has paid for it (just as Gun Liangui did) the viewer kind of wants Gun Liangui to keep the bike, since he needs it to make a living, while Jian needs it to impress his friends and to get integrated into the society he is associated with.

The fact, that the movie contains two tiny sub plots are no negative factor for the film, since they both are connected to the main plot. On the one side we have Gun Liangui's relationship to his adult friend who is running a small kiosk and on the other we have Jian's relationship to his family, especially to his father. Although they might seem a bit unnecessary at first, they become an important part of the main plot.

Worth to mention are the cinematic devices such as cinematography and music. You will encounter a lot of sequences that have a long duration withoug a single cut. The bicycle scenes have been shot very beautifully. A simple camera dolly sure wasn't enough to put these pictures on film in such a way. The camera must have been at least on a pick up. The cinematography during the bicycle chases (which take place in the narrow alleys of Beijing) kind of reminded me of the ones present in Jackie Chan's Project A. By no means however are they displayed with the same amount of action, but with much more suspense.

During all the city scenes, it seems like most people on the street are no extras, but people in their real everyday life. I can really imagine this to be true, since many scenes have been shot from far away, so that pedestrians wouldn't look at the camera all the time.

Music is kept silent and only tunes up where it is really necessary. And when this happens, it really provides the viewer with emotions like happiness, excitement and dejection. There are even such heart breaking scenes, that are kept without music. I wonder how many more tears would have flowed down my face if these scenes had the theme music put over them. Yes folks, I'll be honest. The movie made me sob. As I said earlier, this movie is not about killing or sex. The sad parts are not because of somebody dying or two lovers breaking up. It's just that you'll feel so sorry for what happens to poor Guo Liangui.

I like the way in which the contrast between poor, lower middle class, upper middle class and high class society is being portrayed. While Jian needs the bike to find a girlfriend and to get integrated into the higher class of his friends, Guo Liangui needs the bike to make a living. While Guo Liangui tries to work in order to get into the same lower middle class in which Jian is finding himself, Jian tries to reach the upper middle class of his friends. Guo Liangui's job gives him the chance to associate with upper class people when delivering packages and envelopes to people staying in hotels. He doesn't seem like he wants to reach that level of society. As his friend says: "I wouldn't be able to pee in a toilet in which music is playing."

The only thing I was not satisfied with, is that the movie is over so quickly. Don't get me wrong, it has a running time of over 100 minutes, but when it ends, you just wish that it wouldn't and that you could still follow the two teenagers' life. It might have been a good decision however to make the movie stop just where it gets thrilling. I don't want to spoil the ending for you, but the open ending gives you a lot to think about the movie, which is a good thing, since Beijing Bicycle covers a story that should be thought about. If you think about it, the story is only about two guys in Beijing. They face a problem which might seem small if you read about it in a newspaper, but it means the whole world to them.

One of the director's intention might be to tell people not to look down on others and never be harsh to people in the street for no real reason. They all have their own story and you just don't know it. There might be a sad reason for somebody to stare at you on your way to work in the subway. You might remind him of his dead brother or whatever. In order to conclude, you can say that we should be more careful towards other people's feelings and that we shall not judge them without knowing their story. This is my hypothesis. If you have one of your own, please feel free to e-mail it to me, as I am really interested of what others think about Beijing Bicycle.

Beijing Bicycle is a movie about society, emotions and relations to other people. I can only recommend it to anybody who likes watching dramas and especially to people who like riding bikes. I'm sure that those people will completely understand the two teenagers' love to that mountain bike. Especially, if you consider that a bike has a higher value in Beijing, than it does in Europe or in the USA. Beijing Bicycle is a unique drama, whose style you won't find that easily again in any other drama and least of all coming from Hollywood.

Written on April 17th 2003

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