"Better Days" (2019)

[GoogaMooga]

NOW WATCHING: With Chinese films, I have mainly stuck to the Hong Kong and Taiwanese productions, because I don't like the idea that films from mainland China have to be approved by China's Film Administration. Okay, so we have censorship boards too, but that's more for sex and violence. Still - now I have seen another Chinese film (only my second), the Oscar-nominated "Better Days" by Hong Kong director Derek Tsang. Shot in mainland China. The high school drama follows a young girl's tribulations through extreme bullying and the pressure of the National test, the pass to an elite university. Everybody wants to get into Beijing University, and the competition is cut-throat. She gets a bodyguard of sorts, a protector, when she chances upon a young hood getting beaten up. What follows is classic amour fou, doomed lovers being put to the test, and the film shows how love can grow in a hostile and brutal environment. I recommend this film to fans of a film like "My Bodyguard", really the only other example I can think of that has a similar theme.