BlazeLime Strong and Moving!

PodBill Just what I expected

Taraparain Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Haven Kaycee It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

s13racer With an IMDb rating of 7.4 I was expecting a better movie. Sure, it showed poverty in Beijing that most of us have never seen before, but just because of this, should it deserve a better rating? Some how showing poverty and suffering apparently gets people thinking it was a great movie. It's almost as if they feel sorry for the characters in it, so they feel sorry for a movie that was just OK.The story was OK, the directing was OK, the acting was OK, so I'm still wondering what is it that's making people vote a high rating for this movie? The movies that I list below are somewhat random but rank lower than this movie which I disagree: Higher Learning (6.3) Appleseed 2004 (7.1) Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (7.1) This movie ties with Better Tomorrow (7.4) and can you tell me where's the talent in this movie that compares with John Woo and Chow Yun Fat?As I write this, I came to a revelation.. Females are bringing down my movies.. It would be great if IMDb could split its ratings gender-wise!In conclusion, this movie was just OK. Even if you aren't into racing compacts, you'll find better movie production in Initial D 2005 (5.9).. but then again that's coming from a guy.

henleyleong the movies plot is a bit hard to follow - i think the script is mediocre and too brief. there are some rather ridiculous parts: Jian knows that the bike is Guo's but keeps stealing it?! plenty of swearing mind you, and though the ending is a bit touching, it happens too suddenly. This movie can be funny and ridiculous at times and will make you laugh (because the characters are a bit dumb, really). The girl they consider 'hot' isn't so, in fact shes just a maid dressed up in her mistresses so called posh clothes. Shes just doing this to save face. Anyway, it was OK overall but not my cup of tea. For Sure.

bobbobwhite This film irritated me with its extreme slowness, and the dumbness and wimpyness of the lead character. Even for a drama, it was worth only about 30 minutes of film, but was extended to movie length for "artistic" effect, or whatever. Mostly whatever. Long, long blank looks at each other, almost no dialogue and what was there was so basic and simple, very slow camera panning to kill time....everything in it was at "walking underwater speed" and it just dragged and dragged. Too many very similar scenes that went on and on told me the filmmaker was padding, and not expressing his "artistry". Mainland China is way behind the west in film-making...about 50 years behind, as this film appeared to be post-WWII, not the early 21st century. Won't get much western audience, that's for sure.Really tested my patience but I stuck it out to the mostly unrewarding end that we knew was coming.(He got his bike. Duhhh.) Very simple type of story told much better many years ago in Italy's "Bicycle Thief". See that one instead.

Yossariananda Beijing Bicycle plays out as "how not to be (stomped)". Two similarly flawed characters clinging desperately to one bicycle, which causes them so much suffering. Neither of them knowing when to let go. Both characters going to extremes of passivity and stubborn attachment, failing again and again to practice the pan-Eastern "middle-way". Meanwhile we watch Guo's level-headed/level-hearted boss and Jian's father, dealing well with both his son's failure and his own - and in the background an older man practices Qi Gong. It would be a "coming of age" movie, if there were any development in the main characters, toward the maturity of their elders. But in the end we see each of them battered and bruised, the trio of Guo, Jian and the Beijing Bicycle - last camera shot focusing on the latter, busted-up, a booby prize floating through crowded streets... the message is clear, Just Let Go!