The Beijing Film Academy disgorges talented directors, but the regional film studios typically employ these ambitious youngsters in menial jobs. But something in a Chinese filmmaker cannot take yes for an answer. In one of the world's most repressive systems, they create fearless social commentary. And instead of waiting for the censors to approve their scripts and their films, they go out and do it themselves. Zhang financed Beijing Bastards with money he got directing music videos.
Desperate circumstances create principled outlaws.
The censors didn't intend this, but by their intransigence they helped spawn a truly independent film culture. Finally, arrested for pickpocketing, he is hand-cuffed in a public square and left to be stared at. He is a zoo creature, behind the bars of the people's opprobrium. Sometimes a villain can be attractive. The voice is the postman's, once he takes the next step and writes responses as if he were the people who hadn't answered these pleas for a little human contact.