It is sad, but not sad, depressive, claustrophobic, or crying. It does not deliberately strengthen a certain mentality of revenge because of the sinister and crude human nature, so as to vent hatred for life and hit all. Audience or potential audience.
I like the following scenario very much:
Rich asks a friend to help find a car, so a group of people set off to the bicycle wholesale market. I thought there must be very few bicycles at that time, otherwise why would I agree. But the market seems endless. What's interesting is that no matter how the leader divides the labor, the five people are always walking together, as if they are warming up, and like playing with children.
Rich asked his son to wait on the bank of the river. He went down to find the car thief, and suddenly heard several people yelling: The child has fallen into the water! He rushed back hurriedly, calling his son's name. When the drowning child was rescued, he happened to see the little figure appearing at the end of the steps, holding his clothes and sitting down, lonely and far away. At this moment, the bicycle is suddenly as light as a feather.
So Rich took his son to the restaurant for dinner, two bottles of wine! Two cheese breads! This was something that was not possible before, not to mention the moment when the bicycle was just stolen, even if the rare job was lost! The little boy's innocent surprise bloomed on the screen. Father said, drink! That's how a man should be! Don't let your mother know.
There is another plot: Finally, the bike owner stared at Rich and decided to let him go. Rich went home.
I would like to regard this black and white film 70 years ago as a metaphor of life.
If life is bleak, it may be arranged by God. We are doomed to not find that bicycle, no matter how precious it is and how much hope is placed on it. If life is destined to be like this, we can still take the tired child to the restaurant, and use the only living expenses to ask him for two bottles of wine and two cheese breads, so that he will be glorious and proud in disappointment, knowing that life is hard, but there is reward.
No matter how precious the bicycle is, there will always be more precious things in life.
China also has a "17-year-old bicycle", which also talks about theft and being stolen. I have forgotten most of the plot, but I remember how uncomfortable it was when I watched it. The depression that has nowhere to escape chases everyone. I even wanted to jump up and shout. This kind of movie watching experience is terrible. I don't know what the director wants to criticize and what hints. If he spent so much energy just to tell everyone about the existence of hatred and despair, it would be really terrifying.
This film has won many awards. For Westerners, its significance to the times may be much richer.
In order to track the car thief, Rich broke into the church where the mass was being performed, causing anger and chaos. Yes, he didn't care about mass, because he knew it would not solve the problem. However, he then went to find a fortune teller, trying to get God's instructions from the sidelines, but only got a few nonsense. It was only after reading these two paragraphs that I noticed that for Westerners during World War II, this may be very unusual. Neither the virtual God who controls the church nor the fortune teller, God’s civil spokesperson, can save Rich’s huge losses, nor can his dark tomorrow become bright. God is dead. This shout may be extremely shocking, but to us who have no faith, it seems that Westerners are pretending. Probably, people without faith can't really understand the pain of faith loss.
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