Better Days
Written by Andreas Babiolakis
We are playing catch up by reviewing films that are a part of the current awards season.
Cinema can be molded by the circumstances that surround a filmmaker, even if their film isn’t about that particular topic. Case in point: something like Derek Tsang’s Better Days, which provides a bit of a perspective of how Hong Kong and/or China has felt the last several years. It juxtaposes two starkly different areas of life (high school, particularly during the end-of-year exams, and a life of violence on the street) with one connecting bridge: the never ending effects and resilience of bullying. At school, Chen Nian finds herself next in like to be harassed after a classmate of hers kills herself. Liu Beishan has already committed himself to the thug life, and we see him answering for it the very second we are introduced to him. The two cross paths, both as victims of abuse, and they are forced to connect in the humiliating act of kissing one another; this bonded them more than anyone could have imagined.
As Better Days continues, it generates a pulse that acts as the rhythm of the story and the film’s overall vibe. At first, it is a drive that doesn’t wish to slow down, as if you’re watching people having to make quick, major decisions on their feet, because life is moving too quickly. It’s a bit of a rush I love, because it follows the theme of one’s moral compass, and the many different ways the variety of characters act upon theirs (if they don’t ignore it). Around three quarters in, this pulse slows down a bit, and the calm before the storm is just a little too distant; it’s as if we’re too removed to feel threatened until the film picks up again, whereas being just removed enough would have rendered us suspicious, which may have worked better.
Better Days uses high school bullying as one of its metaphors for current day uneasiness.
Better Days ramps itself up again for the finale, exactly when it needs to, and rescues itself from ending poorly. Instead, it fulfills its mission of placing you in a hectic, anxious headspace of different generations. Sure, we’re looking particularly at the youths of China, but that’s more of a metaphorical element; we assess the people who will be taking over the same systems that frighten them. I think it’s more than that, and even more than the political push between Hong Kong and China. So many films today target the pressures of the internet age, and a world affected by so many hits (financial, environmental and more, never mind the world wide pandemic that occurred after Better Days was made and released). There are so many things that the next generation has to worry about, whilst the rest of us face crises we don’t have answers to. This percolates into anguish, isolation, depression, and retaliation. Better Days bottles up all of these shared frustrations, and channels them in ways we can identify with (being back in school again), and the unfamiliar (being a part of gangs). It is a poem of modern day distress that can affect us all, told with aesthetic harmonization and riveting storytelling.
Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Ryerson University, as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.