Bus 44: Based Upon A True Story

This film has begun spreading on Kaixin001:

This movie is called Bus 44 (车四十四), made by Chinese-American director Dayyan Eng. It won awards at the Venice Film Festival and Sundance Film Festival and was invited to Cannes Film Festival.

Based on a true story, Bus 44 takes place on the outskirts of a small town, a bus driver (Gong) and her passengers encounter highway robbers. “Bus 44” carries a universal theme that travels across all boundaries and societies, trespassing the dark side and bright side of human behavior.

More information.

Comments from Youku:

vince0741:

Being blacklisted within China is the real pity.

Desperado79:

How did it win awards? Just because he made a film about an ugly side [of China]?

takethat62:

The story is a good story, but of course the film inherited Chinese movies’ tradition – – taking a good thing and ruining it. Why would that man laugh in the end? Incredible how chaotic the world view is that this can win an award, foreigners’ standards are not very high either…

chen1984:

Sigh, people these days do not have a sense of justice, though there are also a lot of good intentions repaid with bad consequences, such a conflict.

阿力班长:

Seeing this film my heart feels very bleak. What that bus driver did was right, I support. That guy’s [the guy who tried to help] physique was too weak (I believe our Chinese men need to work out and improve their own physiques) because if he had a good physique then he would not have gotten injured trying to help others/doing the right thing. With regards to the passengers in the film (excluding the women), they did want to go rescue but were timid. If that guy were able to knock out that person, I think they would also get off the bus to go stop the criminals…Everyone feeling afraid and not daring to get off the bus, that is a kind of traditional thinking that more responsibility is worse than less responsibility [it is better to mind one’s own business]. Had the passengers not had the traffic accident, they too would feel a lifetime of regret for not getting get off the bus and having let the criminals ruin that girl.

jjhujj:

Exceptionally sad, really, because I had seen a similar story a long time ago, because it makes me think of what I would do were I one of those people, with most of the people wanting to help, yet afraid to. Exceptionally sad, sad that modern society’s mores are like this.

苛求完美:

Good, good, good, I heard of this a long time ago. Let many people see, see the price of being indifferent.

兜兜ヤ:

Those who died on the bus deserved it.

DaqQQQ:

That male actor’s way of smiling does not seem to be very appropriate for this outcome!

mmh19890525:

This film’s essence is in the actor laughing at the end.

cui19870607:

This short film gives people much to lament about. It was also filmed very well. The lines were not too wordy. Only thing is, the hero laughing at the end is because he finally understood why that girl forced him off the bus, but I also felt this short film did not do this part well. An entire bus full of lives, laughing makes people think the people on the car deserved to die. This makes the short film’s meaning exaggerated or a failure. I am not sure. Overall, this short film was very good, and you can see that the director did his best. I hope similar things will no longer happen.

barryzhen:

Chinese people’s numbness.
Watching this makes one’s heart cold, feeling that this society is pretty frozen, everyone so selfish, a little too selfish, selfish to the point of letting others safeguard one’s own rights and interests. This is also why gangsters can be that arrogant.

What do you think of this short film?