I believe Wang Xiaoshuai is a realist style director. What stands out in this film is the use of long takes. A large number of long shots reflect a kind of objective reality, and the audience is like the onlookers sitting on the bench in front of the house in the alley, silently watching all this happen. Another feature of the film is the scheduling of scenes. The large long-range, medium-range and close-up are the main scenes that make up the whole film. An impressive scene is the scene of a lonely Shaanxi teenager in the jungle of high-rise buildings rushing to the streets of Beijing for a dream of his own. The ideal of the teenager is as small as himself in the heart of China.
However, the disadvantage of the extensive use of a single scene is that Wang Xiaoshuai's intentions seem to be too deliberate. A lot of dialogue between characters in many segments or a single fixed shot makes the whole movie feel like a drama. When the whole movie overemphasizes one thing, it becomes blunt. Wang Xiaoshuai seems to want to sublimate the theme to a certain level in a realistic film that reflects youth and the bottom of society. When the traces of the director's intentions are too heavy, the film will appear unnatural.
Like "Sunny Days", there is youth and love in the movie, and the restless emotions of our youth. Therefore, "The Bicycle Thief" is a classic because it is only a shout to reflect a strong realistic event. "Seventeen-Year-Old Bicycle" combines too much to emphasize the twists and turns of the story and reflect more themes. So many things, it is more difficult to grasp. Of course, this is not to deny that it is a relatively good film in contemporary China.
Towards the end I was wondering how the film would end. The more absurd and ridiculous last scene is the stubborn Xiaogui carrying a modified bicycle on the street silently, and countless cyclists watching his back disappear into the sunset. The significance of bicycles in China is self-evident. It has become a cultural symbol. The pictures of bicycles surging like a tide on the street can only be found in China or in dreams. So stories like this can happen anywhere, which is to say stories about bike theft, whether tragic or comedy, are so small and humble in the life of our country. The ending seems simple but extraordinary. You can find countless people with stolen cars in one day, but there is only one Xiaogui who is carrying a modified bicycle on the endless road. He carried that bicycle as if he was guarding the ideal of deformation, perhaps this is the growth of every teenager.
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