Above: The cast and director of Beijing Bicycle
Above: Li Bin as Jian in Beijing Bicycle (International Title)
An excellent film indeed. The cinematography, especially the final chase sequence, is exquisite. More importantly, the story line--really two vignettes about two boys whose drastically different lives are bound together by a bicycle--is well written, and the characters are well-defined. Some scenes are a bit too long, but that's an insignificant fault when the film is taken in its entirety.
With this film as well as others by Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige, China indeed is the undisputed Center of great and meaningful cinema!
In an interview, BB's director Wang Xiaoshuai stated that China is not "there" yet in terms of making the big box-office action films of Hollywood. And we say thank God for that!
A plea to all Chinese film-makers: Please, please, don't ever go "there." Today's films coming out of Hollywood studios are filthy, crass, meaningless and absurd. We at the Fairbank Report need the kind of films Wang and his colleagues are making for inspiration...
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