I explained I had found it outside a subway station. He spoke some English and took my details, asking where I got the bicycle. I felt very vulnerable, but I think now that this was the point.Įventually, another officer entered. They exited, and I was left in the cramped room with a very low wooden table, my shoes outside the door. Somehow, after a little more barking, I managed to let them know I couldn’t comprehend what they were saying. Flustered and a little scared, I couldn’t remember a word of the language, not that I speak much. An older, overweight one with a mean face barked at me. I found myself in a very small Japanese-style room with tatami mats on the floor. I was ushered into a police car and taken to the station. The man spoke to them and gestured toward the bike. Finally he began shouting an English word that I understood well enough: ‘‘Thief!’’ He was talking so fast that I couldn’t understand what he was saying. Thinking nothing of it, I bent to unlock it and the man started shouting and taking photos of me with his cellphone. One afternoon when I came out of the subway, a Japanese man was standing near the bike. I cycled around on it for a couple of weeks. I could hardly believe that someone didn’t want it. But then I found a nice shiny red one with beige handlebars and a basket. Anyway, last December, I decided to pick one up.Įxploring the usual mountain of bikes near my subway station, I saw that some were little more than rotting metal skeletons others were bent or missing saddles. I didn’t think bicycles would be much different. Lots of foreigners I know get stuff that way. Like the way that, twice a year, when everyone receives their bonasu, or seasonal bonus, families put furniture and TVs out on the street. My friend intimated to me that it wasn’t quite legal, but everyone seemed to do it, including the Japanese, so I thought it was fine. They’re often in big piles, covered in rust, abandoned for whatever reason. People do sometimes take bicycles - not new ones, but the bashed-in things around the entrance of subway stations. This seems unthinkable, but it’s the norm in Japan. Their belongings are always there when they come back. In Kyoto, for example, people often leave their shopping in their bicycle basket, sometimes even their handbags, when they go into a store. Stealing is wrong, of course, same as it is everywhere, but somehow it’s more wrong here. That felt really embarrassing, so I learned quickly. I never blow my nose in public, and I always remember to take off my shoes, though at first I would forget. Laws, customs, etiquette, that kind of thing. The film is often considered one of the masterpieces of 20th century cinema.I’ve been living in Japan for two years, and I pretty much know all the rules. His will broken, Antonio attempts to steal a bike but is caught in the act.Thematically, Vittoria de Sica's THE BICYCLE THIEF details an everyman story of loss of innocence in the face of a destitute society, while the film's poignant acting and directing creates an individual and heart-wrenching tale of one man's struggle to feed his family. Hopeless, Antonio and Bruno wander aimlessly through Rome, landing outside of a soccer stadium where hundreds of bicycles are parked. After three days of hunting, Antonio and his son, Bruno (Enzo Staiola), find the thief (Vittorio Antonucci)-but without witnesses or evidence, the police are unwilling to help Antonio. But when the bike is stolen on his first day of work, he must comb the streets of Rome in search of the bike: his family's only means to survival. In a humbling, tragic scene, Antonio exchanges his family's linen for his bicycle. Unfortunately, he was forced to pawn his own bicycle long ago. After nearly two years of unemployment, Antonio (Lamberto Maggiorani) finally finds work posting bills. The recipient of international acclaim, Vittorio de Sica's Italian Neorealist masterwork, THE BICYCLE THIEF, is a treasure of world cinema.
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