Beijing Bicycle

From a cinematographors point of view this movie is a little confusing to me. However there are many themes that play into the movie. The movie itself has as many twists in it as the cinematography. Starting with the lighting.
Most of the lighting for this movie was natural. All shots were made in busy streets or side streets during the day. He did use dark lighting once to show a poor house that the school boy lived in and also to show how badly the boys fought over the bike in a tunnel.
The lighting helps to bring about a happy start of a new live in the beginning of the movie. Yet as the movie progresses you see the light turn harsh and you feel the heat and the stuffiness of the crowded city start to beat upon you.
Another theme would be the lying. The director uses the shots of the school boy on the roof and the crowded poorly kept apartment his family lives in to show the lies that have been passed from family member to family member. Specificially from the father to the son concerning the bicycle. He uses the shot of the school boy on the roof to show the isolation that the boy has been placed in. Lying also ocurrs to the delivery boy during the course of his job. A great example of this would be all the running he has to do to catch up with his deliveries. The director usually shows shots of him running through crowds that treat him as if he is either not there or as if he is some sort of alien totally out of place from the regular role of things. Something else would be when he goes to pick up one of his first deliveries. He shows up at this dayspa and asks to see a certain person and the lady sends him through the whole spa without even thinking to actualy help him. She even tries to make him pay for the show he didnt even want to begin with.
love is also a theme, although a minor one. It is incorporated into the buying of the bike to impress a girl. The school boy buys a stolen bike to impress her and it just so happens to be the same bike that was stolen from the delivery boy. In his haste to impress the girl he literally fights the delivery boy over the bike without even thinking that maybe it is his and maybe it was stolen. The secret of the bike itslef from his family is a major contribution to prove that there are plenty of lies floating around the city. He shows this by showing shots of the school boy with his friends playing in an empty parking lot to prove also the theme of separation and isolation.
He shows the theme of separation and isolation at the end of the show when he shows the long shot of the delivery boy carrying his bike across the street with everyone staring at him as if he was foriegn. Its also pulled into the story with the shots of the lonely maid up in the apartment always walking around with nothing to do in a crowded city.