A Brighter Summer Day [Criterion Collection] [Blu-ray] [2 Discs]

Director: Edward Yang Edward Yang

Overview

Edward Yang's fifth picture is a novelistic exploration of the meanings and contradictions of Taiwanese cultural identity. Set in 1960, and based on a true incident weighing heavily on Yang's own youth, the film -- which, in its unedited form, clocks in at just under four hours -- primarily focuses on the life of S'ir, a high school student whose civil servant father was among the millions of Chinese mainlanders who fled to Taipei in the wake of 1949's civil uprisings. In the picture's opening scenes, it is revealed that S'ir is teetering on the brink of academic expulsion; like so many of the film's characters, he is clearly yearning for a stronger sense of belonging, and as a result joins a youth gang, much to the detriment of his life at home and at school. In time, he falls for Ming, a flirtatious girl with domestic troubles of her own; this ill-fated couple's circle of friends also includes Honey, an exiled gang leader, Si'r's best friend Xiao Ma, and Cat, a younger boy obsessed with Elvis Presley. (The lyrics to Presley's "Are You Lonesome Tonight?," phonetically transcribed by Si'r's older sister, lend the film its title.)

Product Details

Release Date:	03/22/2016
UPC:	0715515170413
Original Release:	1991
Rating:	NR
Source:	Criterion Collection
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Mono]
Language:	English
Time:	3:56:00
Sales rank:	8,672

Special Features

New audio commentary featuring critic Tony Rayns New inteview with actor Chang Chen Our Time, Our Story, a 113-minute documentary from 2002 about the New Taiwan Cinema movement, featuring interviews with filmmakers Hou Hsiao-hsien, Sylvia Chang, and Tsai Ming-liang, among others Videotaped 1992 performance of Yang's play Likely Consequence

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Chang Kuo-Shu	Father
Chang Han	Older Brother
Wang Juan	Older Sister
Elaine Jin	Mother
Bo-Sen Wang	Actor
Shih Chieh King	Actor
Chang Chen	Actor
Hsu Ming	Actor
Shu-chun Ni	Actor
Jing Yi Yang	Actor
Jiang Xihong	Actor

Technical Credits

Edward Yang

Yan Hongya

Yang Shunqing

Lai Mingtang

Edward Yang	Director,Screenwriter
Yan Hongya	Screenwriter
Yang Shunqing	Screenwriter
Lai Mingtang	Screenwriter

Editorial Reviews

The Taiwan portrayed in A Brighter Summer Day is a world in limbo, a dislocated society desperately seeking to make sense of itself; towards that end, the social landscape reflected by Edward Yang is one cobbled together of elements from other cultures -- in addition to the American rock'n'roll which dictates not only the musical tastes of Si'r and his friends but also their ill-fitting greaser fashions, the plot's touchstones also include a Japanese sword, Hollywood films, a Russian novel (War and Peace, specifically) and Christianity. In essence, lacking a socio- historical foundation of their own, Yang's characters attempt to discover and define themselves within the context of the global cultural overflow, creating patchwork identies from whatever pieces they can fit together. Conversely, Yang's own sense of milieu is unparalleled -- A Brighter Summer Day is a brilliant physical and social realization of the world of his childhood, a truly literary film energized by its complex, criss-crossing narratives. To call the film a Taiwanese Rebel Without a Cause is not entirely unfair -- in addition to similar existential crises and a largely nocturnal atmosphere, Yang's feeling for and understanding of youth culture is comparable to Nicholas Ray's -- but it fails to properly convey the unique vision and haunting power of the former's achievement, easily among the greatest works Taiwanese cinema has yet to produce.

All Movie Guide - Jason Ankeny