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Beijing Bicycle on DVD (2001)
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Radio Times
Reducing the emphasis Vittorio De Sica placed on the search for a stolen cycle, director Wang Xiaoshuai explores the social and psychological pressure of making one's mark in the world in this homage to the Italian neorealist classic Bicycle Thieves. Country boy Cui Lin's gruelling progress as a pedal-bike courier is cut short when his only means of support is swiped. But Wang's portrayal of this event is less an attempt to elicit sympathy for him than the conscious establishment of a contrast to the need demonstrated by teenager Li Bin. He refuses to part with the bike he acquired at a flea market, as his status at school depends upon it.
A late variation on Vittorio De Sica's Bicycle Thieves, in which the emphasis is less on the problems of making a living, and more on the difficulties and particular stresses of urban life. New York Times "...Mr. Wang has a graceful, almost classical sense of perspective....BEIJING BICYCLE is at once somber and mysterious, comical and sad..." Members ReviewsReviews Voted Most HelpfulMost Recent Reviews |
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