Review of A Brighter Summer Day (1991) by Sherwin L — 06 Jul 2015

A very, very long film, but worth every damn minute it is. Watching the film without any doing any "pre-view research" in Wikipedia (how lucky I am!), the film's ending almost made me chocked from disbelief.

The title, the young and bright faces of those naive and beautiful characters (no wonder why Chang Chen still retain his statue-like handsomeness after all those years, his facial shape and shining eyes were already damn perfect in this film at the age of 15), the youthful and calm flow of stories (yes, despite all the political turmoil and gang conflicts, the film is pretty much "a brighter summer day" for most of its length), all those things made me feel deeply at ease enjoying some reminiscence about my own youth.

And suddenly the ending, the heart-breaking ending that torn down all the calmness at the surface, to show the audience all the turbulent flows of adolescent craziness, all the stupidity inside those naive minds that cherish love, first love, first stirring moment of those inexperienced hearts, than anything else in the world.

Yes, those young boys could easily sacrifice themselves for friendship, but they can also turn their back to each other "just because of a girl" (which is in fact their own vanity, the shallow vanity that everyone has at such young age).

But the most heart-breaking thing is, no one can blame those boys, those girls for their stupidity, for their reckless behaviours, no one, as the only thing these coming-of-age "children" can follow at this stage of life is their own heart.

And they suffer, even perish due to such innocent naivety. Really, the film is too beautiful, the characters are too beautiful that I really expected no harm coming upon them, but life is never that easy, especially when you are so fragile, so sensible as we often are, at such age.

Emotions aside, "A Brighter Summer Day" is also technically magnificent, with very good pacing, stunning acting from the surely amateur cast, and an apparent flavour of Ozu, through Edward Yang's style of "still" frame, leaving important details out of the audience's view, and a strange calmness from the characters even in their most difficult moments, which only enhances the linkage between the audience and the strong flow of emotions underneath of those characters.

Maybe not "a brighter summer day", but a beautiful, and sad, day of their youth, our youth, nonetheless.