The two protagonist boys in the film are not actually delinquent teenagers by standard definition. One of them was born in poverty and worked tirelessly in a big city; the other was outstanding in his studies and struggled in a broken family. But then again, they also all have the bad side of seventeen-year-olds: one steals money to buy bicycles, beats and hurts their peers, and the other goes his own way and is stubborn and arrogant. Cycling
is an important support in life for the two teenagers. A position similar to belief needs to be defended to the death. What is shown through cycling is love, friendship, family, vanity, reflection and so on. At the end of the film, the picture of Xiao Gui carrying the smashed bicycle through the concrete jungle and the busy traffic is very dazzling. It is a powerless confrontation with a strong disparity and the cruelty of youth that the marginalized people also have.
The film that participated in the international competition without permission at the beginning won a silver bear that won the Jury Prize of the Berlin Film Festival at the expense of being unable to be released in the mainland. First of all, I want to say that the performance of the two new actors is really enough to describe it as amazing. The entanglement of two seventeen-year-old confused teenagers was well grasped by the director and actors. The unique old Beijing style in the film and the differences between urban and rural areas and concepts of that era marked the first time for such a youth film with a fresh petty bourgeoisie temperament to the mainland. The imprint of the film.
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