Better Days
What a heart breaking film.
Chen Nina and Xiao Bei couldn’t be more opposite from each other, yet so much more alike. Both are lonely, long abandoned by their parents for various reasons. Chen’s mother is at least somewhat in her life, but is also in hiding from the debt she is in, while trying to earn more money.
Both are drawn to each other out of a need to survive. Chen because of her bullies, and distractions eh doesn’t need because of the constant pressure she already feels while studying for her admissions test. Xiao, because of his street life will assuredly one day end him. The constant bruises and scars he comes home with become progressively worse.
This film is an indictment against bullying, and we see it’s effects. Chen is wracked with guilt for her silent complicity, when her friend commits suicide. After being questioned by the police, the bullies turn their attention to her, pulling the same pranks. We see flashbacks to scenes that Echo her friends treatment as we see the same lea so pulled on her. *Wracked with guilt, she holds herself responsible for remaining a silent witness, doing nothing because of the fear it would bring unwanted attention to her. Her friend, just before committing suicide, even questions why she did nothing.
I could go on about the bullying. I didn’t find it exaggerated, considering the bullying I had witnessed firsthand, and, regrettably, the bullying I implemented myself as a kid. I never found it over the top.
The constant pressure to succeed is always in the background as well, with subtle messages abo it their future hinging on their test results. We see a student who HS failed and her parents reaction from begging, to bargaining, to anger.
It is the relationship between Chen and Xiao that is the lynchpin of the film. It isn’t one based on sex. It is a need. The need to survive and escape the city to a better life. Both recognize their current paths are perilous without each other. And so he becomes her great protector. I think, in a way, he also sees her as something pure (he even calls her pure at one point), and he would never forgive himself if he allowed something that pure to be swallowed up by the city.
I do have issues with the third act, the murder mystery, which I felt was completely unnecessary, but it doesn’t ruin the movie, thankfully.
I also wonder how she is able to get a job as a teacher with a prison term attached to her record.
Maybe things are different in Hong Kong. 🤷
What a heart breaking film.
Chen Nina and Xiao Bei couldn’t be more opposite from each other, yet so much more alike. Both are lonely, long abandoned by their parents for various reasons. Chen’s mother is at least somewhat in her life, but is also in hiding from the debt she is in, while trying to earn more money.
Both are drawn to each other out of a need to survive. Chen because of her bullies, and distractions eh doesn’t need because of the constant pressure she already feels while studying for her admissions test. Xiao, because of his street life will assuredly one day end him. The constant bruises and scars he comes home with become progressively worse.
This film is an indictment against bullying, and we see it’s effects. Chen is wracked with guilt for her silent complicity, when her friend commits suicide. After being questioned by the police, the bullies turn their attention to her, pulling the same pranks. We see flashbacks to scenes that Echo her friends treatment as we see the same lea so pulled on her. *Wracked with guilt, she holds herself responsible for remaining a silent witness, doing nothing because of the fear it would bring unwanted attention to her. Her friend, just before committing suicide, even questions why she did nothing.
I could go on about the bullying. I didn’t find it exaggerated, considering the bullying I had witnessed firsthand, and, regrettably, the bullying I implemented myself as a kid. I never found it over the top.
The constant pressure to succeed is always in the background as well, with subtle messages abo it their future hinging on their test results. We see a student who HS failed and her parents reaction from begging, to bargaining, to anger.
It is the relationship between Chen and Xiao that is the lynchpin of the film. It isn’t one based on sex. It is a need. The need to survive and escape the city to a better life. Both recognize their current paths are perilous without each other. And so he becomes her great protector. I think, in a way, he also sees her as something pure (he even calls her pure at one point), and he would never forgive himself if he allowed something that pure to be swallowed up by the city.
I do have issues with the third act, the murder mystery, which I felt was completely unnecessary, but it doesn’t ruin the movie, thankfully.
I also wonder how she is able to get a job as a teacher with a prison term attached to her record.
Maybe things are different in Hong Kong. 🤷