"To
be rich is glorious," said Deng Xiaoping, but what about
those who are desperately poor in China today? Beijing
Bicycle, directed by Wang Xiaoshuai, portrays the
life of ordinary people swept up in the quest for inequality
within a dictatorship of the proletariat. Guei (played by
Cui Lin) comes from the country to the city in search of a
better life. He is employed by a courier company to deliver
messages; he is given a uniform and a rental bicycle, though
he can only own the bicycle if he works hard enough to accumulate
the necessary capital as a commission on his deliveries. He
lives with a friend from the same province, who has a modest
retail shop, from which they view a beautifully dressed girl
who wears expensive clothes. Guei soon finds out that city
people are quite dishonest. After receiving an envelope to
be delivered one afternoon, he discovers that his bicycle
has been stolen; at this point the film resembles the Italian
classic, Bicycle Thief (1948). Although Guei
is unaware, the bicycle is soon placed on sale at a secondhand
shop. Soon, Jian (played by Lee Bin) buys the bike with money
that he steals from his father, who has for years refused
to honor a promise to buy him one. The owner of the courier
company tries to fire Guei, who in turn insists that he will
be able to find the bike out of the million or so found on
the streets of Beijing, so the owner agrees to take him back
if he can find the bike. Since he filed a special mark on
the bike, he keeps his eye open around town; when he finds
the bike in the possession of Jian, he rides off with the
bike, but he crashes into a truck, and Jian reclaims the bike.
After Guei tracks down Jian and tells Jian’s father about
the theft, the father disciplines his son and awards the bike
to Guei. Jian’s classmates, however, conspire to get
the bike for him, as he is depressed that now he has no way
to ride alongside a girlfriend, Qin (played by Zhou Xun).
Finally, a compromise is struck: The two bicycle claimants
will alternate use every other day. However, on the off days,
one of Jian’s friends steals the attention of his girl,
so Jian comes after him with a brick. The attack, in turn,
leads to retaliation by his classmates, who not only beat
him up but also slug Guei and try to destroy the bike. Meanwhile,
the girl who is expensively dressed proves to be a housemaid
who sold some of her mistress’s clothes; when she is
caught, she is fired. The story flows quietly so that filmviewers
will empathize with many of the victims of abuse who are not
doing well in a China where materialistic pursuits are tearing
apart the social fabric. Class distinctions are particularly
notable, and the cityfolk clearly look down upon the countryfolk.
Passivity in the face of adversity breaks down from time to
time into violence. Although Jian’s parents ultimately
realize the error of favoring their daughter over their son,
and Guei’s employer is impressed enough with his persistence
in tracking down the bicycle to rehire him, otherwise the
dog-eat-dog atmosphere of life in Beijing is the principal
message of Beijing Bicycle, a theme that dominated
the same director’s So Close to Paradise,
which was exhibited in Los Angeles last year. MH
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