General Cycling Discussion - Anybody watched "Beijing Bicycle"?

It's a great movie from China. It's about a courier who has just made the final payment on his bike and then it was stolen. The young man that stole the bike is a high school student who's parents keep promising him a bike but then they use the money on his sisters college fund. So he steals one.

The story follows the two of them, one searching for his bike, one trying to keep the stolen bike a secret.

It's a very bike centric movie and it made me realize that Beijing is probably a cyclists idea of heaven. Bikes everywhere, plenty of room to ride, and fellow cyclists going everywhere.

Yep, I own a copy. I liked it, but it was not an easy movie to watch. The pain of watching that guy take a beat down for his bike was tough. Good movie and a good peek into the rest of the un-privledged world.

I'm interested in watching it. Can you tell me if this is a current release or a DVD of an old movie?

Thanks!

-Kevin

It's a very bike centric movie and it made me realize that Beijing is probably a cyclists idea of heaven. Bikes everywhere, plenty of room to ride, and fellow cyclists going everywhere.

Not exactly. I have a lot of chinese friends, and from what i hear, air pollution in the cities is unbelievable (there is virtually no regulation on industrial pollution), and roads outside of the city are lawless. Nobody travels out of the city even by car for fear of being killed by bandits for their vehicle.

Not a happy place.

I'm interested in watching it. Can you tell me if this is a current release or a DVD of an old movie?

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000067IX5/qid=1117830824/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-9889399-7169665?v=glance&s=dvd

Not exactly. I have a lot of chinese friends, and from what i hear, air pollution in the cities is unbelievable (there is virtually no regulation on industrial pollution), and roads outside of the city are lawless. Nobody travels out of the city even by car for fear of being killed by bandits for their vehicle.

Not a happy place.

I guess every city has problems. My friend Lucy is from Beijing and just got back from a month long trip. She had a good time and the pictures she showed were of a pretty modern city with low street traffic, clean. Dallas has it's seedy and rundown side but that doesn't mean Dallas is a run down city. Same with any city actually.

I meant that if you like cycling and if you love cycling and hate cars, then that kind of city might be to your liking. People ride bikes and walk more than they drive, which is opposite from here in the states.

It's also just a good movie. And yes it's on DVD, you could rent it from Netflix.

http://www.netflix.com/MovieDisplay?movieid=60022680&trkid=181026

Yep, I own a copy. I liked it, but it was not an easy movie to watch. The pain of watching that guy take a beat down for his bike was tough. Good movie and a good peek into the rest of the un-privledged world.

Yeah, it's a different, but familiar world all right. Making payments on a bike? Over there getting a bike must be like buying a car is here. :)

I liked the scenes where you see them teaching themselves to do tricks on the bikes. Kids are kids no matter where they live.

Thanks for the info, guys! Am gonna get a copy!

-Kevin

I meant that if you like cycling and if you love cycling and hate cars, then that kind of city might be to your liking. People ride bikes and walk more than they drive, which is opposite from here in the states. The first time I went to Bejing, there were 2 things that amazed me about the cycling. The first was the width of the bike lanes. They're as wide as streets are here. The second is the variety of bike types. The majority looked like standard Flying Pigeons but there were also people hauling construction materials, produce, etc. on mini-trucklike bikes and on trailers.

Yep, I saw it. I really really liked it... even the ending, though I felt bad for the guy. You could so clearly see who the true cyclist was at the end. :cry:

Koffee

Is that the movie where the solution was to trade the bike between the courier and the rich kid at a certain time every day?

Yeah, I've seen it. I rented it from Blockbuster once. I haven't gotten around to getting a copy for my personal collection, but I plan on it.

I've been told by my Chinese friends that Beijing is filthy and polluted. They also tell me that everyone there wants to get a car.

Is that the movie where the solution was to trade the bike between the courier and the rich kid at a certain time every day?

Yep.

Koffee

I actuall lived in Beijing for about half a year, right in downtown core... in some hotel name I forget. Anyways, I wasn't a cyclist back then, but I do remember the amount of stuff one guy could be hauling on the back towed. I seem to recall about 10 sofas stacked up, or a bunch of appliances.

There were also flat repair "shops" very other corner, they'd repair it for like 50cents.

...It's a very bike centric movie and it made me realize that Beijing is probably a cyclists idea of heaven. Bikes everywhere, plenty of room to ride, and fellow cyclists going everywhere.

A great movie. It illustrates how similar teen-agers are all over the world, with similar goals and similar problems.

Sad to say, Beijing is NOT a great city for cyclists anymore. Over the past five years or so, corrupt communist party officials, their family members, and their gangster business partners have acquired fleets of BMW's and Mercedes. Communist party officials objected to bikes slowing down their "progress" from taking bribes in one part of the city to another.

So, bikes were banned from the main lanes of major streets during morning and evening rush hour. That makes it difficult or impossible to ride a bike from home in one end of the city to a job in the other end of the city. Bikes are forced into over-crowded "bike lanes" or into back streets and alleys.

Well, there ought to be protests by the millions of cyclists in Beijing, right? Wrong. The communist party's attitude is: "You have a right to protest our brutal dictatorship, but only ONCE".

--- Yes, I saw Beijing Bicycle and liked it almost as much as I liked the Vietnamese cycling movie entitled "Cyclo".

Cyclo is a beautiful movie and Beijing Bicycle is great too. I don't think it was shot in Beijiing though, maybe someone who owns the DVD could straighten me out. I really wanted to go to where ever they shot it. Afterliving in NY's Chinatown for 7 years, the movie seemed very true to culture.

I'd love to see this film. Another bike theft related film, and one of my favorites is the Italian classic 'the bicycle thief'.

Is that the movie where the solution was to trade the bike between the courier and the rich kid at a certain time every day?



...


you bastard.

I saw "The Bicycle Thief" once while randomly tuning around on TV, it's a must-see.