The bustling street is very similar to the one I used to pass through after get off work. If I am unlucky, I have to wait for a long time for the red light. I don't know when I can walk again.
If you are just struggling to get enough food, all cities look the same in your eyes. In the eyes of Xiaogui's friends, the part of people in big cities that lacks humanity is filled with cunning, while women in big cities are full of cunning. It is even more invincible. There are countless migrant workers like him whose names are ignored. It is like inadvertently grabbing the cape of Superman and being taken to the sky. Existence, neither can seize the opportunity to change fate, nor reluctant to return to their hometown to do farming. He and the nanny played by Zhou Xun are the same type of person. He can see the prosperity of the city but cannot see the value of struggle. He is envious of the nobility of the city people but lazy to enrich his inner self. He is high-minded and short-lived. Big dream heart.
Xiaogui's stubbornness is mainly due to his youth. He was dazzled by many new things in the city when he first came to the city, but he has more fantasy elements in his bones: the bicycle represents the first gift he got when he came to the city, and it represents the city's relationship to the city. His affirmation and tolerance have the meaning of a mascot. He has a good impression of the nanny played by Zhou Xun, just like Xiaojian's feelings for Xiaoxiao, the budding love of teenagers and young girls, and part of the motivation of Xiaogui's obsession with bicycles also has the credit of this feeling. Although the director did not explain Xiaogui's family background, he believes that all of them are simple and honest people, in order to cultivate Xiaogui's stubborn temper of "getting up wherever he falls". It's just that he can't fully understand the possibility of conflict between heaven and the rule of law. If the bicycle is stolen, he will steal it back. This is also a very typical psychology of marginal people: he does not consider the situation of others or his life or death. The once soft heart was slowly ground to numbness and hardness, and then became the most common and popular crowd. And this is just the beginning. Getting a bicycle through hard work has brought so many misfortunes. What will be the price of Xiaogui in the future?
Xiaojian's personality is completely opposite to that of Xiaogui: good face, like to play cool, many companions, selfish lies, self-righteous. His father's remarriage and partiality made his character more violent day by day. Material was his biggest pain point, and it became the only sign of his dignity. Cycling is the only way for him to maintain friendships and girlfriends, and he yearns for performance and fulfillment, not real friendship or caring. Whether the boy Xiaoxiao chose in the end was attracted by the ruffian's sex, or he really had something special, it didn't matter in Xiaojian's eyes, the important thing was that his girlfriend's departure made him lose face. The lawlessness of the youth is based on this qi, in fact, it is also because there is nothing in their hearts or outside their bodies. When he and Xiaogui couldn't make a deal because they couldn't make a deal on bicycles, what he saw in Xiaogui was his naive understanding of life. Xiaojian's friends are all such ruffian teenagers. They have learned the behavior of young and dangerous boys but do not understand their righteousness. In their immature outlook on life, the sign of maturity is only on smoking and soaking up women.
In the end, the hutongs where Xiaogui and Xiaojian were chased and killed made me dizzy, too. The hutongs like spider webs only entangled these little people. Unfortunately, what I saw here is another time. The weak fight each other. They did not resist the city's injustice and indifference at all, and even absorbed these negative emotions with the essence of the dross, waiting for the day when the scorching sun scorched their last nerve flowing with positive energy. Although the film is full of leisurely old people doing tai chi, kind aunts in headscarves, and folk hutongs where the sun is soft and dusty, it can't hide the chill of reality radiating from the inside.
I like Wang Xiaoshuai's literary films! It's silent and thought-provoking!
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