Flawed, but riveting, engrossing slice of life film. A stark social realist film coming from a semi-socialist country. The first film from the People's Republic of China to be shown in an American theater, Rickshaw Boy is not just a story about Chinese rickshaw pullers, but about the meaning of being working class in any capitalist society from Mexico to the US. The film takes place in capitalist, per-revolutionary China. The city of Beijing provides a backdrop to this film; a city depicted as dirty, dilapidated metropolis with severe class divisions. The wealthy who live in spacious mansions to the poor who live in 1 room hovels. Capitalism promotes the myth that hard work, determination, and thrift are rewarded with prosperity. These ideals the Rickshaw boy believes in at the beginning of the film are ruthlessly laid bare by the end of the film as capitalist myths. No amount of hard work is rewarded as we see in a purely capitalist society and can never be. The poor survive by helping and caring for each other, but that it not enough in a system of government where poverty can only breed poverty. This dog eat dog world created by capitalism consumes everything as we see in the film; loved ones, even honor and dignity. Those at the very top represented by the wealthy Ricksaw business owner couldn't even care about their own children,, because in an economic world absorbed with money only generating money matters to those controlling the system. The film is well-cast with spectacular gut-wrenching performances. It is totally engrossing as a film, because the conditions of the Ricksaw boy are conditions that all of us as working class people from around the world have endured to some level in our lives. It's only flaw is the lack of character development between the characters. More time should have been spent in developing this. If it did, it could have earned 10 stars.
