Nominated for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film—the first Hong Kong submission directed by a Hong Kong native to be recognized in the category—Better Days turns an intense gaze on bullying and the hyper-competitive atmosphere that surrounds the Chinese gaokao, a two-day national college entrance exam. Directed by Derek Kwok-Cheung Tsang, the film centers on the unlikely relationship that forms between a young woman who sees the exam as her main means of escaping a rough existence and a young man who has embraced life on the streets as the only option available to him. Through them, Better Days forces us—indeed, it’s more than a little heavy-handed—to come to terms with how the extreme pressure put on young people by society results all too frequently in tragedy.
Warning: this film features depictions of bullying and suicide, which are described in this review.
This Way Out
In the middle of preparations for the exam, a young woman named Hu Xiaodie (Zhang Yifan) jumps to her death in order to escape the vicious bullying that was a relentless part of her life. A fellow student, Chen Nian (Zhou Dongyu), approaches her body in the schoolyard and covers her with a jacket—a small kindness towards a girl she regrets not taking the time to get to know better. Unfortunately, this gesture of solidarity makes Nian the new target for Wei Lai (Zhou Ye), a pretty and popular bully who seems to take great joy in making life miserable for those less fortunate than her and has little remorse about her role in harassing Hu Xiaodie to her death.
Determined to not let anything distract her from her studies so that she can ace the exam and escape to a prestigious university in Beijing, Nian reports the bullying to Zheng Yi (Yin Fang), the detective investigating the circumstances around Hu Xiaodie’s death. Wei Lai and her cronies are suspended from school, but that doesn’t stop them from continuing to bully Nian; if anything, they raise their game, waiting for Nian after school to beat her up, rip up her homework, and even chase her with a cage of white rats.
With her mother hiding from creditors while earning money to pay their debts, Nian turns to an unlikely ally: a street punk named Bei (Jackson Yee) whom she encounters by chance as a gang is beating him up one night. Bei begins acting as a bodyguard for Nian, following her to and from school and allowing her to use his run-down apartment as a safe haven for studying. Eventually, their oddball relationship blossoms first into friendship and then into romance. But the fallout from an act of violence in their community threatens to destroy the small peace they have found with each other.
Heavy Lifting
Equal parts romantic melodrama and anti-bullying PSA, Better Days is an extremely heavy film, with many disturbing depictions of cruelty, abuse, and violence over the course of its two-hour-plus running time. I was only mildly bullied when I was a teenager—light teasing compared to the sheer torture that Wei Lai puts Nian through, which at its peak includes cutting off her hair and stripping her naked while recording it all on a cell phone—but Better Days dredged up enough bad memories to fill me with almost incapacitating anxiety. When the film takes a turn in the latter half and throws a murder mystery into the equation, it really starts to lose its footing and slip into the maelstrom of unpleasantness it has concocted for its main characters. It’s hard to keep watching when such horrible things keep happening to such likable people, especially when they contain shades of familiarity.
Fortunately, the film centers on two incredibly charismatic young actors, and the burgeoning relationship between their characters provides a much-needed spark of light amidst all the darkness. As Chen Nian, Zhou Dongyu (who gave another acclaimed performance in an earlier Tsang film, Soulmate) is absolutely heartbreaking, her quiet yet defiant performance an ode to any girl who has ever chosen to recede into the background of the world for her own sanity and safety. The breakout star, however, is Jackson Yee, a pop star-turned-actor whose magnetic screen presence reminds one of James Dean. As not-so-bad boy Bei, whose tough behavior can barely conceal the broken heart caused by his mother’s abandonment, Yee takes a character that could easily have been a cliche and makes him feel fresh and exciting; watching sparks fly between him and Zhou is a delight. Credit must also be given to Zhou Ye, who makes Wei Lai an absolutely terrifying figure even as she smiles and flips her hair; I’m not sure if there’s been a prettier movie monster in recent memory.
In the film’s best moments, such as Bei solemnly helping Nian shave her ragged head before doing his own in solidarity, Better Days reminds one of some great melancholic coming-of-age films of the past, like Tsai Ming-liang’s Rebels of the Neon God and Fruit Chan’s Made in Hong Kong.
In both of those films, which also feature young people who dabble in the criminal underworld to make ends meet, the main characters are stuck in a similar limbo as Nian and Bei—what does my future hold, and do I even care? But what makes Tsai and Chan’s films so good is their dreamlike storytelling structure, forgoing straightforward plot and action for a messier, more abstract depiction of the struggle to cross the threshold from youth to adulthood. I would have loved to have seen Nian and Bei’s story given a similar treatment so that the anti-bullying message at the film’s heart could have come across a bit less bluntly. Indeed, Better Days even goes so far as to tack on an epilogue detailing the laws that have been passed by the Chinese government to limit bullying and punish those who engage in it—truly the cinematic equivalent of being hit over the head with a hammer. But watching Nian and Bei together in the film’s more delicate scenes, the poetry manages to come through.
Conclusion
In highlighting topics ranging from bullying to exam anxiety to irresponsible parenting, Better Days often feels like an extremely bleak after-school special. But thanks to Zhou and Yee’s remarkable performances, it’s worth sticking with to the bitter end.
What do you think? What are your favorite Hong Kong movies? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
Better Days is currently available to rent on Amazon Prime. You can find more international release dates here.
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