With a score of 9.5, it doesn't use skateboarding as a street sport to promote the existence of a subculture like other skate documentaries. The emotions and weaknesses of each character in this documentary are exposed, which is not seen in other skateboarding documentaries.
A first-person documentary angle of the director's two student friends, Keire and Zack. The three of them met through skateboarding, and they all saw skateboarding as a tool for escapism, the pleasure of temporarily putting pain aside. What they looked like skating recklessly in their youth versus struggling in the adult world as adults.
The time window of the documentary is very long, and you can see the transition process between the director's technique of shooting skateboards, from the immature fixed shots at the beginning to the smooth tracking shots later. But not only the transformation of camera technology, but also the story Liu Bing wants to unfold from the images of this period.
The growth and changes of each character in the lens are obvious and regrettable. It seems that people's growth always takes away a lot, such as Zack's eyes on the camera from bright to dim.
The three of them had similar traces of domestic violence in their childhoods, and skateboarding was a place where they could relate. Skateboarding brought their worlds together, briefly escaped from life, and briefly gained freedom. From Liu Bing's lens, I can feel their reluctance to reflect on this pain, Keire will vent and break the skateboard, Zack will choose alcohol, and they are struggling with self-contradiction.
The childhoods of the three people are all lacking, and there is no complete warmth.
It all comes from the family they were missing when they were young. Keire's very strict father bound him with all kinds of rough behavior. And the director himself has an abusive and alcoholic stepfather, coupled with a delinquent mother, childhood is like a nightmare, and it is hard to imagine how to spend such a time. Over time, memories of the past slowly ooze out again, as the director confronts his mother on camera, and Keire confronts it with optimism and confidence.
But only Zack, who was the bravest in his youth, was actually the weakest of the three, repeating the traces of domestic violence of the previous generation, making him choose to escape, not daring to face his children and family, and be afraid of himself.
The precipitation of time has made the camera sharper, and he can capture the most intoxicating freedom in the process of skateboarding . They all take comfort from the skateboard. Like the flip trick of the skateboard, it is a kind of daring and adventurous self-liberation.
Life has repeatedly pushed them to the brink of despair. The director chose to dig into the most painful depths of their hearts, and also has his own share. This is to use the camera to face the reality and no longer escape. Liu Bing's interview has become more and more acute, and he has made the three of them recognize themselves. Stated in a very sincere way, he listened all the time without jumping to conclusions. Then, layer upon layer of what he observes is formed, and what is displayed in front of the audience is a complete three-dimensional story.
It doesn't use skateboarding as a street sport to promote the existence of a subculture like other skate documentaries. The emotions and weaknesses of each character in this documentary are exposed, which is not seen in other skateboarding documentaries.
The whole documentary expresses the importance of the self-knowledge process more than anything else . It's sharp and stings viewers, but it's also beautiful and heals wounds.
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