Beijing Bicycle

Enjoyable but less resonant than his earlier work, Wang's third 'above-ground' film centres on two contrasted 17-year-olds in present-day Beijing. Country kid Guei (Cui), slow-witted and awesomely stubborn, is a newly arrived economic migrant who gets a job as a bike courier and works hard to cover the cost of the bike. But his treasure is stolen and later bought from a street market by schoolkid Jian (Li Bin). Guei finds it and tries to steal it back. After much wrangling, the two agree to a timeshare arrangement. Then Jian's clumsy handling of his first crush brings trouble down on both their heads. There's plenty of good sociological observation in the background (Jian's fraught dealings with his remarried father yield two great scenes), but the best thing here is the stand-off between the two boys, on the cusp of a friendship.