Stand Straight, Never Give In

Huang Jianxin's analysis and criticism on Chinese life is probably at its broadest in "Stand Up Straight, Don't Bend Over" (which goes by about five different English titles). He looks at the transition from socialism to capitalism from a wide variety of perspectives, considering the effects of new entrepreneurs, corruption and bribery, violent crime, the one-child policy, housing, fashion, education, old customs and so on.

The strength of this movie is that although the spectrum of social comment is extremely broad, it doesn't seem artificially "tacked on" to the film as a whole; rather, Huang creates realistic and engaging characters and tells a story which, although it is a little cliched and drags somewhat towards the end, engages the audience in both an emotional and intellectual sense. The conflict between Niu Zhenhua as the hooligan with a heart of gold and Feng Gong as the repressed intellectual is excellently played and a very good central focus for the movie.