Beijing Bicycle

Pee Wee Hermin it ain't! In Pee Wee all works out for the best and the world is a dreamy place filled with toys and innocent fun. In Beijing Bicycle the world is smokey gritty and harsh, and almost nothing works out for anybody, that is until getting along is the only possible option.

Guei, a country boy in the big city manages to find a bike messenger job where he can work off the payments on his brand new bicycle, The roads he pedals are filled with potholes in the literal as well as the figurative. To say that Guei has it rough might be the understatement of the century. First he finds himself mistaken as a customer in a house of comfort, and owes the house for his shower, then his bicycle is stolen, and from there on in things tend to really go down hill.



We tend in our western conceit to believe that ultimately the hard work and honest life pay off with a loving spouse, a decent living and that good wins out in the end. But here in the final analysis, at least the honest and honorable have their pride if nothing else.

Beautifully filmed, this cinema vérité really performs as an escape form our lives, but it deeply immeshes us in a minimum of five others, all of which are in all likely hood far harder and more depressing than our own, but we tend to identify with them in any case. All their faults and weakness are our own, their strengths we aspire to. It is not a light movie, and it is in Chinese with English sub-titles, but you really don't need them. We understand it all, somehow even before the events take place. Well Worth viewing!