Better Days (2019) High school bullying is stirring but skin deep in Tsang's melodrama
Better Days has a simplistic view on high school bullying, but is it unwilling to scratch the surface, or rather, is it unable to?
At the beginning of Better Days, a title card declares that the filmmakers hope it will encourage a dialogue about high school bullying and help those experiencing it to feel less alone. It succeeds in one of these. The emotive performances present a stirring portrayal of the impact bullying has on high schoolers. However, Derek Tsang’s melodrama, which was Oscar nominated for the Best International Feature Film in 2021, never quite goes far enough in its inquiry into why bullying has become an epidemic in the Chinese education system.
As gifted student Chen Nian, played by Zhou Dongyu, becomes the new victim of vicious high school bully Wei Lai after her friend’s suicide, Better Days only lightly touches upon the issues that contribute to her torment. The movie acknowledges that Chen’s debt-ridden mother has a dubious job selling fake products and is largely absent from her child’s life, all of which make Chen a prime target for her aggressors, but Better Days never truly wrestles with the effects that one’s socioeconomic class can have on bullying. Similarly, it portrays an unfeeling education system more concerned with exam results than student welfare, yet falls short of condemning the failures of institutions designed to safeguard young people. The movie’s philosophy on bullying, which it often repeats, is that most kids fall into one of two groups: the bully or the bullied. This binary way of seeing the problem speaks volumes about its simplistic view on a multifaceted issue.
But is Better Days unwilling to scratch the surface, or rather, is it unable to? The year prior to its release, regulation of the movie industry moved to the Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda department, and filmmakers were encouraged to tell stories that promote harmony rather than offering social critiques. Even in its rather shallow form, Derek Tsang’s story still managed to fall foul of the CCP, with its Berlin Film Festival premiere cancelled after failing to obtain the necessary permits from authorities. It makes you wonder whether, under these conditions, Better Days would ever have been able to grapple with the complex social and political factors that enable a culture of bullying even if it wanted to.
Nevertheless, where the film does excel is in Zhou Dongyu’s powerful performance which highlights the isolation, shame and mistrust that emerge from being the victim of bulling. Particularly great is her chemistry with an equally impressive Jackson Yee, the TFBoys singer who plays a teenage thug Chen enlists as a protector from her bullies. In the film’s latter half, their relationship unexpectedly morphs into a tender story of star-crossed lovers brought together by a shared pain, and Better Days is much more successful as a romantic tragedy than it is an anti-bullying statement.
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Directed by Derek Tsang. Written by Lam Wing Sum, Li Yuan and Xu Yimeng. A Henan Film Group, China Wit Media, Tianijn Xiron Entertainment, We Pictures and Shooting Pictures production. Distributed by Lian Rui Pictures, Shanghai Taopiaopiao Film Culture, Tianjin Maoyan Weying Media, Huaxia Film Distribution and Golden Village Pictures. 135 minutes. China and Hong Kong.