Accomplished director Wang Xiaoshuai, whose films have been censored or banned in his native China, emerges from the underground of Chinese cinema into mainstream movie consciousness with this powerful but painfully slow film that centers on a bicycle — Wang’s metaphor for the brutality of life on Beijing’s streets.
If this sounds like a familiar tale, Wang does borrow heavily from Vittorio De Sica’s neo-realist classic, “The Bicycle Thief.” While both films weave a naturalistic tale about an everyman whose worklife is disrupted when his bicycle is stolen, Wang’s film is more deliberately sentimental and contrived than De Sica’s masterly portrait of postwar Italy.
That Wang even comes close to emulating the gritty narrative style of the Italian master is reason enough to see his film.
Shy but stubborn Guei is one of hundreds of poor young men who swarm into Beijing to seek work. Guei lands a job as a bicycle messenger.
He quickly learns that the city is a tough and impersonal place as he joins the throngs of Beijing denizens who travel on bicycle. After one month of work, Guei finally earns the money that allows him to own the bike, as required by the company. When the bike is stolen and Guei is fired, he goes on a personal mission to recover it.
Wang then shifts the story to another young man, Jian, who steals the family money to buy a bicycle on the black market.
The bicycle is the catalyst that releases tensions, a desire for revenge, and base behavior.
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“Beijing Bicycle” ((star)(star) 1/2) opens Friday at Music Box, 3733 N. Southport Ave.; 773-871-6604.
