Scanialara You won't be disappointed!

Jonah Abbott There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Janis One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Martin Bradley "Beijing Bicycle" has been described as a Chinese "Bicycle Thieves". This kind of plot is easy to poach if not always that easy to bring off but Xiaoshuai Wang manages it beautifully helped by a couple of wonderfully naturalistic performances from Lin Cui as the young courier whose bicycle is stolen and from Bin Li as the young thief, as well as by the superb cinematography of Jie Liu. This time the plot is less predictable and handled with a touch more humor than you might expect. It's also a great 'city' film with Wang handling the milieu of a large, and to Western eyes, a virtually unknown metropolis with all the brio of a Lumet but also with a freshness of approach and, like Lumet, he manages to balance the comic and the tragic in equally brilliant measure. This is a truly terrific film that simply shouldn't be missed.

tedhinshaw I really enjoyed watching this film for a second time recently. A story of a young peasant from the outskirts of town (Beijing) struggle against societal oppositions, finding work, keeping bike from preying thieves, and learning survival skills. Beijing is not an easy town to tame! At times very funny! At times very violent, makes you want to turn your head in disgust. The violence is to prove a point. No good comes from it, whatsoever! I think this film is well made. The pace is smooth. The acting is superb. I especially like the acting of the employer who hires the main character as a messenger boy. He is what you would call a prudent business man with heart! Please take some time out of your day and watch this tense movie with moralistic themes: rich versus poor, right versus wrong, bullying versus stubbornness. A winner in my book!

huangyiju Beijing Bicycle is certainly a layered movie that can be read at many levels. It ostensibly deals with a delicate and difficult subject that China confronts in its frenzied project of modernization: the floating population who lives on the edge of the city, the marginalized group that can no longer be glossed over in the grand narrative of urbanization. This floating population is the abjection, the cluster that can not be assimilated, the group being ruthlessly cast away but stubbornly clings on, and protests in silence; it is a disoriented group, usually incompatible to the ever-changing landscape of metropolitans; their voice is constantly being submerged in the hubbub of the sleepless cities. Indeed, the floating population is aphemic. What strikes me, frustrates me and saddens me is Gui's inability to communicate, to speak out, and to articulate for himself. (This is a little far off, but I was reminded of the similar frustration I had as a little girl when reading 'the little mermaid': if the mermaid has not given her voice away to the witch, she could tell the prince that it was she who saved him and wins his love.) Similar to the little mermaid, Gui could not speak up when he was wronged and abused. For instance, all Gui could convey to get his bicycle back is either his obstinate silence or his repeated sentence: "zhe che ben lai jiu shi wo de" (the bicycle is originally mine). His desperate, strident and continuous cry when being forced with violence by Jian's gang to let go off his bicycle is simply heart-breaking. Who is to blame for Gui's aphasia? Is it class division? Is it his own dislocation? Or is it the indifference of the city with its condescending atmosphere? The picture is definitely not black and white. The result of his aphasia, on the other hand, is more self-evident: at the end of the movie, Gui eventually turns to violence to break his silence… It is said that at least 60% of the crime that happens in Chinese cities comes from the floating population. They are suggested to be the root of the social problems. News reports constantly show how the innocent city folks are being hurt and robbed by those "the other" from the abjection, the floating population. Beijing Bicycle, however, attempts to approach this abjection, to speak up for those who do not speak for themselves, and allow us to sympathize with their plight.

anonreviewer I thought it reminded me of some of the European movies, esp. French. Especially the ones made decades ago.My wife thought the ending was bad, in that it left you hanging.