Bullying ~ the big menace in school. How it affects the bullied person mentally, emotionally, physically. The role of parenting. Not only giving birth but also becoming the parent. The school, teachers, parents, law, and above all we people; have to stop it. The story telling is good. The sacrifice we make, for the other persons.. Important message given which we dont think is a big issue. We take certain issues less important but actually being much more important. Questions raised on loyality, friends, bullying, parenting and much more. See for the message!

We often hear about how students in China are among the most hard-working in the world, real go-getters. The underbelly of this is the severe stress under which they operate. Derek Tsang's Academy Award-nominated "Shaonian de ni" ("Better Days" in English). The protagonist is a bullied girl about to take the National College Entrance Exam. She hooks up with a local hoodlum, but surprises remain in store.

The torment from the bullying reflects the pressure from the exam. It's a truly tough world for this girl as various events conspire to close the walls in on her. The complex characters and the general intensity of the plot make this one movie that you have to see. It's the first of Tsang's movies that I've seen, but I certainly hope to see more of them. A real masterpiece.

I was given the chance to sit down and watch "Better Days" (aka "Shao nian de ni") here in 2020, and of course I jumped at the chance as this was an Asian movie that I hadn't already seen.

I didn't know anything about the movie when I sat down to watch it, so I didn't have any expectations to it either. Which was good, because director Derek Tsang definitely didn't fail to impress.

This movie was pretty hard-hitting, director Derek Tsang seemed to know what buttons to push for optimal effect. And I will say that the movie can actually turn out to be difficult for some viewers to watch.

The storyline was good, and it was driven by something of a mixture of an interesting script and storyline, along with some really impressive acting performances. I was especially impressed with the performance of Dongyu Zhou - in the lead role as Chen Nian - as she really carried the movie phenomenally. Her performance really blew me away, and made it so well-worth watching the movie.

The movie deals with bullying, a subject that can be somewhat delicate for some viewers. But I think that director Derek Tsang managed to present the movie in a convincing and realistic manner. Well, at least I was genuinely entertained by what transpired up to the end of the movie, where the story sort of fell apart for me. I didn't like the ending one bit, nor the sudden and abrupt turn of direction that the story took. But hey, to each their own.

"Better Days" is a movie that flew under my radar, but it is a movie that you most definitely should take the time to sit down and watch, if you are given the chance. I am rating it six out of ten stars.