Review: A Brighter Summer Day
At last week's gloriously sold-out screening of Edward Yang's A Brighter Summer Day at SFIAAFF, The Taipei Economic and Cultural Office handed out pamphlets advertising travel to Taiwan. I can't thank them enough for sponsoring an incredibly rare presentation of this four-hour masterpiece, and I heartily recommend travel to Taiwan. But it was an odd place for that promotion, since the film essentially paints Taiwan as hell on Earth.
ABSD takes place in Taipei in 1959, ten years after the Communists took over China and the Nationalists retreated to Taiwan. It centers on the family of a Shanghai intellectual, Mr. Zhang, specifically on him and his teen-aged son, Si'r (megastar Chang Chen, in his first feature role). In this new and supposedly temporary home, the old order collapses. Both father and son are drawn into turf battles -- between the Communists and Nationalists and between local street gangs, respectively.
The twin stories are to blame for ABSD's daunting running time, but they need each other. Like few other films, it creates a sweeping vision of a complicated time and place, one we can feel as well as see, even if we don't understand the complicated gang rivalries. (I've seen it three times, and I still don't.) The city is still in the shadow of World War II and the Chinese civil war. Tanks roll down the streets. Weapons are hidden in homes left over from the Japanese occupation. Most demoralizing for Mr. Zhang, the military calls the shots. It's no coincidence the film takes place largely at night, and often by flashlight.
But ABSD is more than a vision of a debased and dislocated society. It's also about a love affair between that society and its key military ally, the United States. Visions of Fifties America abound, from sock hops to gunslinger fantasies and gang fights reminiscent of West Side Story. The title comes from a slight mistranslation of the Elvis song "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" by Si'r's sister, slaving over a phonograph and a dictionary. The juxtaposition of soothing American music and the complexities and deprivations of the family's life in that sequence is exquisite.
It takes Yang's innovative eye, and powerful performances across the board, to bring all this to life. Wang Qizan nearly steals the show as Cat, a diminutive gangster and budding musician. Zhang Guozhu (Chang Chen's real father) embodies weariness and disappointment as Mr. Zhang. But Chang as Si'r, and Lisa Yang as his girlfriend, Ming, are the two engimas at the heart of this volatile story. Fittingly, in Yang's wide, unpredictable shots, action emerges by surprise rather than being presented as set pieces. There is sweetness throughout ABSD, in romances, bits of humor, and Mr. Zhang's devotion to his son, but the lulling nostalgia never lasts very long. The gun is not a toy, and it's loaded.
ABSD takes place in Taipei in 1959, ten years after the Communists took over China and the Nationalists retreated to Taiwan. It centers on the family of a Shanghai intellectual, Mr. Zhang, specifically on him and his teen-aged son, Si'r (megastar Chang Chen, in his first feature role). In this new and supposedly temporary home, the old order collapses. Both father and son are drawn into turf battles -- between the Communists and Nationalists and between local street gangs, respectively.
The twin stories are to blame for ABSD's daunting running time, but they need each other. Like few other films, it creates a sweeping vision of a complicated time and place, one we can feel as well as see, even if we don't understand the complicated gang rivalries. (I've seen it three times, and I still don't.) The city is still in the shadow of World War II and the Chinese civil war. Tanks roll down the streets. Weapons are hidden in homes left over from the Japanese occupation. Most demoralizing for Mr. Zhang, the military calls the shots. It's no coincidence the film takes place largely at night, and often by flashlight.
But ABSD is more than a vision of a debased and dislocated society. It's also about a love affair between that society and its key military ally, the United States. Visions of Fifties America abound, from sock hops to gunslinger fantasies and gang fights reminiscent of West Side Story. The title comes from a slight mistranslation of the Elvis song "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" by Si'r's sister, slaving over a phonograph and a dictionary. The juxtaposition of soothing American music and the complexities and deprivations of the family's life in that sequence is exquisite.
It takes Yang's innovative eye, and powerful performances across the board, to bring all this to life. Wang Qizan nearly steals the show as Cat, a diminutive gangster and budding musician. Zhang Guozhu (Chang Chen's real father) embodies weariness and disappointment as Mr. Zhang. But Chang as Si'r, and Lisa Yang as his girlfriend, Ming, are the two engimas at the heart of this volatile story. Fittingly, in Yang's wide, unpredictable shots, action emerges by surprise rather than being presented as set pieces. There is sweetness throughout ABSD, in romances, bits of humor, and Mr. Zhang's devotion to his son, but the lulling nostalgia never lasts very long. The gun is not a toy, and it's loaded.
Labels: reviews, SFIAAFF 2008
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