More than just a bicycle

Movie #5 of my film class (ah, many more to go!) and in fact, I liked this even better than the movie Wang Xiaoshuai based his idea off of, Bicycle Thief and it looks like I’m going to be the only one giving this movie five stars. Going to have to babble about why in a bit…

The Story:
Young men coming in from the country to the big city of Beijing need jobs. Bicycle couriers are needed and Guo Liangui – or Geui as everyone calls him – gets to be one of them. The company issues them brand-spanking new bicycles, and after earning enough money through a 20-80 split, the bike will become the property of the courier, the profits then cut down the middle. Sounds like a plan.

Geui is on cloud nine. He’s got a fine job, a fine bike, and there’s a cery pretty woman living in the building within eyeshot of the humble home Geui and his pal Da Huan live in. However, while inside doing a pickup for a delivery (after a confusing mishap), Geui bounds back outside only to find that his bike – his pride and joy which was going to be totally his after just one more job – is gone. He never even saw the thief and is at a total loss, missing his delivery and getting fired for it. However, Geui is stubborn (so everyone tells him) and makes a proposition – he’ll find the bike, and his boss gives him his job back. Sure, but can he do it?

Meanwhile we see a bike that looks a lot like Geui’s – only astride it is a boy named Jian, whose family is rather poor and can’t afford to get him his own bike. He likes a certain girl, and hangs out with his friends getting the hang of doing bike tricks or going to the arcades and playing Dance Dance Revolution. But what is the connection between him and Geui? Is this Geui’s bicycle? Did Jian steal it, or is there something else going on?

Prepare for an unpleasant game of tug-o-war that will have Geui and Jian questioning themselves.

My Experience:
Like I said, I liked this better than Bicycle Thief. Whereas I started to get impatient during that movie, checking my watch and so forth, this film had a lot more going on in it, like the question of whether or not Jian did indeed steal Geui’s bike (I was wrong in my guess), what is up with that city girl Geui and Huan keep gawking at, and whether or not Jian would stop being such a sulky kid.

My instructor mentioned a theme of inarticulateness and he wasn’t kidding. Half the time I wanted to jump into the movie and defend Geui or just yell at him for not standing up for himself, especially when it was necessary. The bike meant different things to each person, but Geui’s need for it was much greater, so even when he made his compromise, I was going bonkers in my seat. I can be pretty indecisive and passive, but even I will get worked up enough to assert myself. But one has to remember that Geui is just a country kid in the big city trying to make his way and isn’t used to all these people nagging and poking at him. It’s obvious he’s unaccustomed to things when he walks into a large building with automatic revolving doors, getting a bit confused and ending up going around more than once. Geui isn't the only one with a lack of vocal ability, Jian does this himself, as do a few minor characters.

The movie takes you to many places, from the towering skyscrapers of rich Beijing businesses to hutongs – the back alley neighborhoods where Jian lives. You wonder about class systems when people like Geui’s boss say, “It’s just a bike” when that bike was the reason for Geui’s ability to do the job in the first place, or even the simple fact of what that bike represented to him. Even Huan doesn’t seem to grasp it. Jian does in his own way, even if his reasons are slightly different and he eventually goes over some odd edge…

I have to mention the music too because I really enjoyed it. The sad flute in the beginning (not the typical flute, but like a wooden one – pan flute maybe?) and at another point some more traditional Chinese music with pounding drums, etc, or a bit of soft piano when Jian is with his would-be girlfriend. It was all just so appropriate at just the right times even if sometimes each piece was quite different from another.

The ending might annoy some people, which I am able to understand, but personally I had no problems with it. Things I want to know I can just speculate about, but as for the particular issue with Geui’s bike, the ordeal was over, and so the film ended as such.

Some may think it slow, and there were times where you might wonder, “Well now where’s it gonna go?” but I was content and think many of my classmates were as well. We wanted to see what Jian and Geui would do next. As for it being “too sad,” while you do feel very much for the characters, I do feel confident in saying it could have been worse – after all, it did not end the same way as Bicycle Thief which is a good thing. Maybe I’m just lenient on my movies, but I really do think that this merits five stars.

NT