What a pleasant surprise! I ran to my local indy-plex in Cambridge, MA to see this film before it vaporizes, as most small foreign films still do, even in the Athens of America. It charmed and fascinated. The subject matter, adolescent males in an urban setting obsessed with bicycles, would not be something I would normally seek out. But, the best part of this movie for me was the experience of true, artful movie making, seemingly unincumbered by commercial nods to financial patrons. The cinematography is excellent. It places the viewer in many of the scenes in a very subtle way. The story is frustratingly universal. On the surface, it got me right back to the maddening frustrations of my own male adolescence, and the absurdity of it. I found much of it very funny. The storyteller's use of the bicycle owners as segments of the current Chinese demography after the invasion of capitalism from the West was very educational for me. I think, despite my relative ignorance of modern Chinese affairs, it is an allegory of modern China. In any case, the use of symbolism was both welcomed and refreshing. I wonder if this is the current Chinese equivalent of our "Dude, Where's My Car?"
Review of Beijing Bicycle
