The 181st Best Director of All-Time: Edward Yang

Taipei Story:

A stunning opening; black screen as footsteps can clearly be heard before we cut to a gorgeous shot of two people looking out a window

Another absolute stunner of a man (not sure who yet; or should I say Hou yet? Ha) shot in a doorway in a rule of thirds shot

More of these absolute jaw-droppers; a shot just like the one above but angled slightly at 3 minutes

Work with shadows at 4 minutes; again in a doorway

I have never seen an Ozu film, but Ozu is noted by Drake to be an incredible editor and the editing here is quite excellent; a great montage in a house showing mise-en-scene arrangements and closeups of various objects

An Antonioni-like shot in an office at 5 minutes using vertical blinds

Another gorgeous one of 5 men posed in various ways wearing black suits

More genius editing as one of the characters describes a lawsuit he is in over a construction site incident and the film cuts to a montage of what happened with a voiceover; blows me away; Only Yang’s second film

A great shot tracking a man (not Hou who shows up in a second) and Tsai Chin in a building complex at 7 minutes; long distance

A great elliptical use of sound where we cut to a scene on a Highway but the sound of the cars comes early

Of course, Taiwan was very heavily influenced by the Japanese occupation; baseball (which Hou plays) is massive in Japan

A gorgeous frame of Hou sitting around a bunch of chairs and a lamp off to the side of the frame at 13 minutes

Doorway shot at 14; damn what a pretty film

Another gorgeous double doorway frame followed by a second one from a high angle!

Another stunner of Tsai Chin with sunglasses on standing in front of a door she just closed next to some framed artwork

And yet another jaw-dropper of the city streets at night as cars power down the street with those piercing orange lights

Hou is in a bar and there’s a lounge singer just like A Brighter Summer Day

Another shot with Tsai and the man from the office as he is covered by his blinds and she is not; there’s a beam between them like Antonioni in L’Eclisse

It must be the year of the doorway and hallway shot cause there’s yet another two great ones in this format using the Rule of Thirds

Another one this time with Tsai standing in the doorway facing away from the camera and Hou on the other side of the room facing towards it

32 minutes, a shot extremely similar to that one Drake has screenshotted of the funeral scene in Ordet (Hou standing up as Tsai is sitting with a table between them and a ceiling lamp)

Yang cuts to a painting as they talk and then refocuses as Hou swings his head into the frame in a closeup; to be honest I was a little disappointed by this actually as I was hoping for more of that amazing montage editing we got in the first 5 or so minutes

Hou owns a calendar with a picture of Marilyn Monroe

They’re solid; I’m not sure I’d say at this point (1/4th of the film) that either gives a top performance of the year however

Great mise-en-scene including tiled walls, colored rolls of fabric on the sides of the frame and arrangements of tables in a shot at 37 minutes

It’s funny seeing Hou having Jackie Chan hair at this point in time since all the photos I’ve seen of him show him with much shorter hair (older)

Ahh, there it is; that famous shot of Tsai and Lin looking away from eachother that makes the poster for this film

Some form here; Hou told Tsai a while back that he would watch her father and his friend play Chess and he’s doing that here

A shaky camera mounted onto a car Hou is driving

One of the film’s best shots as Hou is with one of his old baseball buddies; both facing in the opposite directions, light coming in through some windows…

Another really pretty one with blue lighting outside some windows with two doors on the very edges of the frame; a young girl is talking to an older woman on the right third of the frame

No musical score but there is some rock music played in this nice scene at the bar

A claustrophobic tracking shot as Hou gets nervous after coming to the bar with Tsai’s friends and we follow his face as he goes to the bathroom briefly

Another solid one as Hou and Tsai’s business friend are playing darts and they’re juxtaposed a little against the dartboard; the friend makes a comment to Hou about his playing baseball when he keeps missing and Hou gets pissed off and starts a fight; it’s not terrible but the fights in A Brighter Summer Day (there’s a few there) are clearly better

Another good one as Hou is sitting on the bed looking like shit and Tsai is there next to him and she eventually lies her head in his shoulder as he monologues to her

Stark imagery of another (much richer) one of Hou’s baseball friends standing alone in a completely empty room; he and Hou (who we cut to right afterward) are throwing a ball as Hou tries to sell the house to the friend; they talk about Vietnam, about America, etc.

Low angle of Tsai leaning on a brick balcony that looks a lot like the one that WKW uses in 2046 a million times (and I love it)

Yang blocking half of a frame here with a yellow car before moving the camera and blocking the other side of the frame with the same car

Easily the best shot in the film so far – nothing else even comes close – as four men, including Hou, are shot in different levels of depth at 61 minutes

A very narrow doorway shot with shirts and jackets hanging on the walls at 64 minutes

A great shot (not held for long enough) with motorcycles, cars, shop signs and the like all scattered throughout the frame at 66 minutes

Another of the film’s very best shots as Hou and I think his ex or sister are standing (and looking very small by comparison) in front of I think their old school at 68 minutes; right afterward he holds another one do the two at a swing set (her sitting on the swings and Hou standing beside it)

Hou had in the past taken a hoer trip to Tokyo where his ex was; Tsai was nervous he had gone to see her during his time there but he denied it, saying he had just had a quick stop at the airport, but here she mentions “driving back from the airport” implying it was not just a quick stop

A very strong edit from fast-forwarded baseball footage of Hou’s (watched by Tsai’s friend) to Hou and his lover in his car; there’s another great one ending that scene as she asks him when he next goes to Tokyo and we cut to him in an elevator

My God; he goes home to see Tsai and she (rightfully, despite her own affair) accuses him of having been to see Ko (the girlfriend) and he storms out and leaves without a word; she screams at him as he runs down the stairs and behind her the elevator opens and closes signifying his exit

Absolutely gorgeous lighting – reds, blues, even a little green – in this scene back at the bar where he plays poker with some friends and another lounge singer is there

Unintentional hilarity ensues as Hou tries to chase a taxi and screams very loudly and stereotypically at it; actually not a bad shot as the camera is mounted on the taxi and we see it gain distance from Hou

Will Tsai ever find employment again?

We’re at a scene by the waves now; great stuff; there’s a tracking shot of the waves and a really nice long shot of Tsai standing by the cliffy coastline

Musical score for the first time in this montage-y scene of Tsai’s birthday; really nice alternating neon lighting here; funnily enough there’s a scene a lot like this in WKW’s debut As Tears Go By

Beautiful shot of Tsai and another boyfriend who looks like a Taiwanese James Dean type standing by this massive green neon sign

Hou’s poor friend’s wife who Hou beat up in the street once for gambling instead of watching her children just killed herself

Some nice compositions with bodies in the frame and usage of color (lots of reds and blue shirts and the like) as all of the people at the party (Hou not one of them) wake up after the previous night

Nice motorcycle sequence riding through the city of Taiwan almost exactly like the end scene of Fellini’s Roma – there’s a bit where they pass by a memorial to the Republic of China (which is of course Taiwan), but I’m not sure how well it works here as this film is not a satire

More elliptical use of music as we cut from a scene at a club to Tsai back in her own home but the music presses on for a short time afterward

An Antonioni shot; Tsai on the phone but about to be pushed aside by her wall blocking off part of the frame

Again with the elliptical editing as Hou is yelling over the phone but the camera is Tsai’s POV looking out of a car window

James Dean keeps trying to pursue Tsai but she is avoiding him

A fantastic tracking shot as Tsai walks beside a Christmas sale on a shopping district; shot from the other sidewalk, cars occasionally blocking part of the frame…

Tsai calls Hou to come pick her up so she can avoid James Dean and Yang shoots her on the phone from the back of the head

One of Hou and Tsai’s dad sitting on the front steps of a building drinking as cars will pass in front of the camera from time to time

A great montage first showing a tunnel with a motorcycle in it then showing this amazing low angle shots of the faces of various buildings; cars are passing by and their headlights will illuminate the building faces or the insides of the tunnel

Lots of talk about moving to the United States which could be semi-autobiographical as Yang spent much time in America before becoming a filmmaker; “America won’t save your problems,” and that kind of talk

Tsai wants Hou to stay with her but he leaves; there’s a shot of him in the elevator and the doors close as the floor indicator changes from 3 to 2; very good

James Dean had been gone for a while but finally comes back right as Hou is leaving; Hou warns him to stop bothering Tsai and the scene ambiguously cuts as Hou leaves in a taxi and James Dean revs up his engine probably intending to follow

We see the Marilyn calendar again as we cut back to Tsai in her apartment

Hou leaves the taxi to fight James Dean and kicks the shit out of him before Dean leaves but it turns out Hou has received a stab wound; he tries to halt a passing taxi but alas it does not stop

A quite excellent image here as we see a long shot of Hou walking aside this tall streetlight as he’s dying

He happens to be sitting by a TV that’s playing a baseball game and he listens to it before pulling out a cigarette and smoking one last time

More shots with the streetlights

Yang goes pretty heavy on the montage here – ending it like it began – awesome images contained in these

A really nice rolling tracking shot of Tsai’s ex-employer walking in an empty office trying to get her a new job

This shot in the empty office could be right out of The Conformist

The final shot (pre-credits) is one of Tsai looking at her reflection in a window that then cuts to just the reflection as she puts on the sunglasses again; the boss asks Tsai if she still plans to move to America with Hou and she says no but it is disembodied; the reflection does not show any sign of speech

A really nice shot that the credits are played over; a high-rise building covered in reflective windows that cars pass through

Even here Yang is making an epic what with the giant cast of characters and the two leads’ efforts to jumble all of those relationships around

Takes like the first hour to pull out of Recommend territory (though still a very good film) but I shouldn’t have been surprised having already seen A Brighter Summer Day

I think there’s a full Must-See film or possibly even a Masterpiece if there’s more elliptically-edited scenes with voiceovers like in the beginning

Highly Recommend/Must-See border but could go Must-See with a second viewing

The Terrorizers:

Incredible montage editing in the opening; the close-up portrait, the man in the shower (with colored whales on the curtain), and him looking out his window as the curtains there blow behind him

A stunning tracking shot passing between two rooms as a woman wakes up out of bed and we see another man staring also out the window; with the previous man his girlfriend was in bed as well

I do think I’m willing to admit that even right at the beginning of the film that this is vastly superior visually to Taipei Story

I think the actor playing the photographer may be James Dean from the previous film

Heavy emphasis on sound here with the clicks of the camera and there’s also this dripping faucet as well

A stunning usage of mise-en-scene at 8 minutes; newspapers covering the windows on the other side of the frame, some tables in the center of the room with soda cans and water bottles and the like and dirt all over the ground; very rigidly-structured shot

Great stuff here with the characters encountering eachother; we’ve got the photographer capturing the teenage girl who then sees the businessman driving by her on the street; it doesn’t quite strike the viewer at first as the plot hasn’t unfolded itself at all so far but I’m sure it will over time

When the photographer took the photos of the girl I thought “heh that’s kinda like Blow-up,” but then I facepalmed and thought “Of course it’s imitating Blow-up,” cause I realized it was intentional – Yang was a big Antonioni fan

Great montage shooting windows in an office of some kind (it’s a laboratory); I remember a few shots like this in The Pornographers so I wonder if Imamura influenced Yang… that or the more likely story being that they’re too films I’ve watched recently that have similar shots that appear in a number of films

Yet another stunner; a series of windows showcasing a long line of people sitting at a table with the sun behind them illuminating the whole shot in gorgeous yellow

A totally wordless exchange and montage as the teenage girl is picked up by her mother from the hospital

Green light and symmetry in this really nice frame at 15 minutes

The girl in the shot I just mentioned goes over to a window and opens it and we see a young man – I actually think it might be the photographer but we don’t get close enough – in the reflection cleaning the windows and then cut to a low angle of the same setting

Yang surely is experimenting with lighting here – and not just with color; there’s a nice frame combining pitch black and blue lighting at 19 minutes, there’s silhouettes, etc

Followed by another one of a bartender on the phone in red lighting reflected off all of the bootlegs behind him

We’re back in that room with the tables and cans I mentioned earlier – it got raided by the police and there’s a great composition where the owner or whoever is communicating with the cops

“Smoke Gets in Your Eyes,” which I hear in all the MUBI ads (which has this film) plays at 22 minutes

We’re back in that room 2 notes above – it’s an apartment – and 3 for 3 beautiful frames inside of it

Piano music in the background at 29 minutes

Great ellipsis here; the teenage girl is telling somebody over the phone that she doesn’t want to live anymore and took a bottle of sleeping pills as the photographer’s girlfriend herself seems to have attempted suicide and is shown in an ambulance

A stunning frame at 31 minutes; I think it’s the doctor’s wife standing in a home office on one side of the frame divided away from the living room (also in the shot) by a wall

More voiceover

Jump cuts as well as I think she tries to tear apart her husband’s (or her own) work in sort of the opposite of the opening of Godard’s Tout va Bien which is deliberately done without jump cuts by their very inventor

A particularly exacting scene here as the doctor’s wife and her new lover discuss their past relationships and the like; it’s a long take in a very cutty film but it nonetheless does not feel out of place

A really great shot of her looking out the window of his apartment as she fixes her hair

The yellow lighting in the hospital appears again when we return to there

Another of these really nice frames set in a classroom as the doctor is speaking to his friend who just left the team and it cuts to a longer shot of the two surrounded by all the black tables in the room

Another really nice doorway frame of the doctor’s friend that Yang holds for a while – good to see him start to realize the power of holding onto a frame – I love the heavy sound of his footsteps as well

Another great movement of the camera following a plug wire on the floor over to a door

A striking edit juxtaposing the doctor’s wife and the teenage girl who both happen to be using the phone at the same time; a big wow formal moment

A really nice frame of the doctor’s wife standing in her home surrounded by all of the really nice furniture they’ve bought; I’m a particular fan of the red dragon pillows they have

The photographer claimed earlier that he would not buy the apartment from before that he walked into, but the doctor’s wife just went there and found him living inside it after breaking up with his girlfriend; another great enigmatic moment

The phone ringing incessantly at 45 minutes

Another great one of the photographer putting black paper all over the windows in the apartment (he’s making a darkroom, right? Yes he is)

Wall-art frame of the doctor and wife sitting at a table with a door open next to them leading into their kitchen

A long take of the wife during this tense scene with her husband

An absolute jaw-to-the-floor totally static frame shot of the doctor – in low lighting- looking at outside his window as his wife leaves; mise-en-scene mastery here with a blocked right side of the frame as well; note the reflections on the floor underneath

Whirring fan in the sound design at the teenager’s and her mother’s apartment, just a second later with the traffic around her

There are these really nice high angle long shots tracking her as she goes about the city

She makes some work as a prostitute and is robbing this one guy when she thinks he is showering but he comes out and is about to beat her when she stabs him; crazily enough I actually wonder if the guy is Yang himself as he looks enough like him

A gorgeous shot of the girl walking up some stairs right next to some trees swaying in the wind

Yang makes sure even the smallest moments of her existence are painful what with this dog barking at her on the street

Another great formal moment as she walks into the photographers darkroom and sees the photo of herself before collapsing as we see that famous shot of the photographer looking down at her

Another really nice frame of these two characters having a conversation sitting on opposite sides of the frame

I wasn’t too surprised when she stole a lot of his photographical equipment to go sell it for money

We hear the sound of a plane flying above and then the camera pans up to a bunch of photographs of planes he had taken

There’s constant talk about how the doctor never reads his wife’s books so obviously they wouldn’t have a great relationship if he can’t learn the first thing about her from learning about what she creates

A solid frame using the reflection of a woman’s face against a window at 78 minutes

The wife is back at the office she was at like an hour ago one scene; she’s won a great literary prize that the photographer reads about in the newspaper right afteward

There is the utmost assurement as a director in the tracking shot that appears at 83 minutes

Editing montage of the wife giving a TV interview over her novel; the camera gets increasingly zoomed in before we finally cut to her face on a bunch of screens

The photographer tries to call the doctor’s home and neither he nor his wife are there – he finally arrives and at first misses the call before the photographer calls again and they agree to meet

At 84 minutes there is a montage of the early pictures captured by the photographer of the girl

Great Venetian blinds appearing in an overall wall-art shot at 88 minutes

The actor playing the doctor, Li Lichung, is I think the best in the film

A stunner doorway Rule of Thirds shot of the doctor at 91 minutes; this is exactly what PTA does with Sandler in the opening of PDL to show Barry’s isolation

So much can be written about Yang’s influence from Antonioni with his use of architecture to divide frames in two

That famous 360-shot in Order almost shows up here with the doctor

At 99 minutes the doctor walks out of an elevator and then the camera moves to this rigid wall-art shot of the doctor looking to the right at the door into his wife’s lover’s apartment; really gorgeous

He kills the lover and goes into the bedroom to shoot the wife but ends up unable to do it and we cut to see he has actually shot her mirror instead

There are three scenes with the girl acting as a prostitute in the film and the final involves the doctor as the victim; a very nice editing montage as she pulls her blade out of her pocket and we cut to the doctor again with a blank expression before cutting away from the scene entirely

These cops have been chasing everyone around the entire film and here it seems they’ve finally caught the doctor – who we have seen over the course of the film is a great friend of the cops’ leader – as they break down the door into the apartment

The last few minutes of the film are not easy – very elliptical – but it seems to be it was a dream I think of the wife of her husband going out on a killing spree as she wakes up and vomits, all the while he has just killed himself in the house of his cop friend (who he was staying with) and the cop goes and finds him with his blood dripping into the bathtub or whatever behind him

I could easily be making false friends here but I wonder if there’s some connection between the wife spewing vomit out of her mouth while her husband blows his brains out the back of his head

I hate to say it but even though it’s already leaning in that direction already if this is closer to 90 minutes the film wouldn’t just be leaning – it’d be there. That being said it is good that some of the formal elements do come back such as the office in which the wife works reappears an hour after the first time and the prostitution scenes finally culminate in the doctor meeting the rebel girl, though the second scene (there are 3 and the doctor’s is the last) can probably be thrown out

I did have to read the Wikipedia page to find out he was a doctor though as previously I thought he was a chemist; and to be honest I even wonder if I was right and the Wikipedia is wrong since some other people I read said he was a chemist too

Underrated by the TSPDT consensus at #1763 – not even in the Top 1000 – but that seems to be changing as in the TSPDT Poll this one made it in at #320 which is a decent spot.

Must-See leaning Masterpiece with another viewing

A Brighter Summer Day:

Really hitting me with that first frame of the father in the school office; it’s a doorway but the doorway isn’t centered off to the frame it’s off to the right, the father is off to the left within the doorway, there’s a running ceiling fan; I forgot this first frame was so strong

Really nice ambient frame going down a long road, noticeably like much Yang it isn’t actually symmetrical, the camera has a slight angle off to the side just like the one I talked about above

Radio broadcast declaring the names of a few exceptional students

There are occasionally (at pivotal points of the film) these intertitle frames describing the scenario the film is based around

A really fantastic high angle frame on a film set Chang and his friend are watching; probably like 20 people (members of the crew) throughout the frame fanning themselves; the camera then tilts upward to show Chang and his young friend Cat watching everyone

Really great blocking in this section where Chang and his friend try to escape the crew when they are discovered; it really is like von Sternberg here as he uses the bars in the catwalk

There are a lot of scenes – though especially here at the beginning of the film- where Yang uses flashlights for lighting; it doesn’t entirely land I think but it is a bold, maverick choice

One of the characters is named Sex Bomb which I somehow missed the first time?

I love the small detail with the kid who literally hides in plain sight on the stairs right in front of the gang chasing him; they actually miss him and keep chasing after the other guy so he escapes

A really stunning frame with nighttime light pouring into the school’s hallways through the windows at 10 minutes; the shot is down the whole length of the hallway

I do know Goodfellas (which as I have mentioned in the past was only a year old in 1991) was Yang’s inspiration here, but I see a little bit of Rumble Fish with the discussion of Honey, the leader of the Little Park Boys (the gang Chang is closest to) who has left the neighborhood after killing a man in a similar manner to Mickey Rourke’s departure from the gang in Coppola’s masterpiece; their opponents are the 217s and it is their conflict and Chang’s inevitable involvement in it that makes up the bulk of the story

Again with this jaw-dropping frame; Chang is in his bed which has a sliding door and the camera pokes through the door at his family as they walk around the house; there is a veil hanging in front of the camera

A fantastic slow tracking shot across the room as we cut outside of the bed and get this stunning frame of the family’s kitchen with a couple doorways and levels of depth to be seen; Yang also opposed to centering these elements in the frame as always

A great frame as Chang is sitting at a speech in a crowd of a bunch of Taiwanese military academy students like himself all wearing that same uniform; unsurprisingly he still is barely off-center in the frame

Sly, an aggressive student who has a rivalry with Chang but nonetheless remains a close associate of his throughout the film, was seen by Chang with a girl the previous night; he now demands Chang not tell anyone he was with her; I can’t remember for certain but I do think the girl was Honey’s girlfriend, Ming

I can’t remember when exactly it was (either a radio broadcast or in the speech a few remarks above) but there is a bit where the confiscation of baseball bats is mentioned and Chang unwittingly causes another student to lose his bat

A stunner of a frame at 22 minutes in a grocery store; yellow lighting galore

A shot through a bunch of bars (like prison cell bars) at 23 minutes; it’s not quite Bresson (not used in that context) but a great frame regardless

Chang goes to his bed and is writing about beating up Sly in his notebook; he has his flashlight right next to him upright as a light

A really nice one of Chang Kuo-chu (playing Chang’s father) and Elaine Jin (mother) in a bus, camera offset to give a view of the opposing road, as blue lights often flash inside of the bus

They pass by a military convoy on their bus trip; I don’t actually think it’s a massive stretch to compare this to Y Tu Mama Tambien as Garcia Bernal and Luna pass by a special police unit preparing a drug raid in a scene of the film in a scene quite like this

At 31 minutes you get the stunning frame of Chang and Cat standing in the doorway that Drake has on the 1991 page; it’s followed by an even greater jaw-dropper of 6 of our characters standing around at various depths in a doctor’s office

A fantastic cutaway to Chang’s and Ming’s shoes at 33 minutes

Followed up by another wall-art quality film of the two as they escape the school by jumping a stone wall; probably not a good idea as Ming has a leg injury

This is also followed up by a great high angle frame showing the two of them in the catwalk like at the beginning

Chang and Ming are observing an ROC Army shooting range exercise as they themselves are being observed by some 217s

And just like that at 38 minutes comes the Letterboxd header for the film

What a bunch of cowards; the 217s approach Chang and he kicks one in the leg and the rest of them just run off like that

Chang’s older brother, Lao Er, and a bunch of the townspeople are in a pool hall now (one of the film’s major locations) and there’s a great frame of everyone gathered around to watch Sly play pool at 42 minutes

There’s another really nice one of the school – on the absolute far right of the frame – obscured by a bunch of trees; great image

I hate to make a call so early but I do think the film is shaping up better with the second viewing; it’s not easy the first time with the massive scope of the plot (I’ve heard there’s like 80 characters total)

Fantastic pink lighting in this strong scene with a band performing at an ice cream parlor; Cat is one of the singers

There is a girl present, Jade, who is rumored to be the girl Chang said Sly was with a few nights ago, but both deny it and Chang himself says he does not think it was Jade but nobody believes him

An absolute stunner at 48 minutes with Chang standing under this neon light in otherwise total darkness shot from a long distance

Yang, you can’t sneak that one past me; Chang’s older sister is trying on a dress and the younger sister points to a page in a magazine with another young woman dressed the same way and the other page has a section dedicated to 16mm films!

Really great shot of Cat and another kid in a motorcycle shop with another man working out inside the shop’s office through the window

Whenever some kids are playing basketball there are these really nice long shots of the entire court with lots of natural light pouring into the room

At 56 minutes a new boy is introduced to the class, and we are informed by Cat that this kid stabbed a student at another high school; this boy, Ma, is one of the major characters throughout the rest of the film

Cat, who is extremely young (maybe 10 at most?), walks up to a street vendor and asks if he has porn and gets it

A really nice tracking shot as Chang is walking with Ming and we briefly shift our gaze to a passing cyclist before Chang and Ming renter the new frame

A stunner at 60 minutes as Chang and Ming enter the film studio, with the lights off, and the two are shown only as silhouettes as the only light pours in from the lights outside; there is a great bit here as Ming balances herself as she walks along a dolly rail

He aims his flashlight up at the catwalk expecting people like him to be up there

At 62 minutes it’s revealed that Honey killed the leader of the 217s which I assume is the origin of their conflict

Chang’s parents are continental refugees who fled to Taiwan from the Chinese Communists

Lao Er, having lost at pool earlier, took his and Chang’s mother’s watch in order to pay off debts he owed due to his defeat

Ming and her mother are at the doctor’s office due to Ming’s asthma and there’s a fantastic frame as Ming stands off to the side in medium-close and in focus as her mother is discussing with the doctor out of focus in the background; just an excellent frame

Wow; I feel like I totally missed this the first time around; we cut to another shot of Ming crying which we at first assume is connected to the previous (and similar) frame but then we find out it’s her screen test; there is a genius wall-art composition using multiple levels of depth of the film crew gathered together observing the test; at one point we cut away to the catwalk and Chang is not there to watch her as she asked of him earlier

This is probably because Chang had allowed Sly to cheat off of him on a test they took earlier in the film and they are now in detention because of it

It’s a very different performance from Chang Chen; he acts like a background character in his own film, constantly emotionless face; I’m pretty sure I touched on this in my first review but it never feels like he personally is the driving force behind the actions in the film up until the final fateful moment at the end

I always loved the scene where Chang and his dad are walking down the street with his bicycles discussing Chang’s demerit; there’s such warmth in Chang Kuo-chu as the dad – I’m reminded a little of Michael Stuhlbarg in Call Me By Your Name

Lao Er is back in the pool hall with the owners and there’s a great segment in this scene where the power goes out and they have to light everything with candles that have this awesome red effect

Great parallel editing in a scene where Chang is about to get beaten up by some 217s over his involvement with Ming (who was involved with the 217 leader that Honey killed) and his friends are breaking his chair in order to use the legs to fight the 217s; we edit between these two segments but Ma, a general’s son, goes out to rescue Chang before a fight breaks out

Absolutely hilarious but as Ming is being talked up romantically by some guy and then he farts in front of her and has a laugh about it with his friends

Great doorway shot of Ming and the doctor as Yang slowly Dollie’s the camera forward

Chang is there as well and he walks past a mirror a couple times appearing in it; we watch Ming leave before the camera tilts into a door as she and Chang are walking around and speaking; great scene

A wonderful shot inside the ice cream parlor showcasing the pastel blues and pinks; there is symmetry between all the tables and there are ROC, USA and UN flags hanging all around the place

The Little Park Boys arrive at the ice cream parlor looking for Ming and we see that Honey – though his identity is not revealed yet – has returned; he has a commanding presence with a jacket he wears over his arms and that distinctive naval cap; he also has extremely baggy pants

Sly is screwing with Chang and refers to him as a “real Gregory Peck”

A bona fide jaw-dropper at 97 minutes as Honey is standing at long distance and 3 of his top gang members (one of them is Deuce – a handsome singer who often works with Cat) also appear in the frame at closer but different depths; Honey then goes and looks out the window to see Ming with Chang

Rolling tracking shot inside the motorcycle shop; very strong

I hate to say it but Yang really should have cast different-looking actors in the roles of Sly and Lao Er; they are extremely hard to tell apart

I very much admire this scene where Honey is holding an audience with Lao Er over the activity that has been taking place in Taipei since his exile that is followed up by this fantastic dialogue between Honey and Chang (mostly a monologue from Honey); at one point there is a cutaway to Ming who is holding Honey’s naval cap; he decides to allow Chang to continue pursuing Ming

Fantastic establishing shots as the concert that has been talked up for the entirety of the film up to this point is finally happening; Chang is there with Ma; Ma shares a few glances with Jade who is there with Sly

I love the one shooting the backs of everybody as they stand at attention for the Taiwanese national anthem; we follow this up by going outside of the theater to everybody else all standing around facing different directions but totally still

Honey arrives at the concert, which was set up by Sly to create peace between the Little Park Boys and the 217s and is the only person not standing at attention; he is barred from entering the building by the 217s.

Honey is somewhat afraid as he believes the Little Park Boys are more loyal to Sly than they are to him; Sly had the pull to organize this concert and a truce between the two gangs, after all

There is a fantastic high angle shot of the two gangs as they both, now, prevent Honey from entering the building; Honey leaves to have a very fateful chat with the new 217 leader, who kills him by pushing him into a moving car

A shockingly rewarding second viewing

A while back Ma was showing everybody his dad’s katanas and gave a few to some of his friends and one of them is showing his around here at the concert

A great shot on the stage blocking off part of the screen with a red curtain

Great shot of the boys playing around with a large tape recorder as they discuss the death of Honey

Another fantastic rolling shot at 120 minutes; this leads us into this great long shot as Ming speaks to Chang about her feelings on Honey’s death while a cleaning lady puts up her equipment behind them

More shots on the basketball court at 122 minutes; the sport has to be a favorite of Yang’s to be so prevalent here

A “WOW!” shot as Chang, Airplane, and Cat stand in one of the hallways at the school surrounded by darkness – I know my description of it doesn’t sound so illuminating (especially given the lighting – haha) but this is one of the film’s best shots

It is implied they are beaten up by some bullies afterward as the next time we see Chang he has a bloody nose; he writes in his journal again, this time about Ming; it is good that this segment of the film comes back

Chang is with Cat and Ma at Cat’s place I believe and he has a lot of Elvis Presley posters up

Chang goes to Ma’s place and they talk about Ming while Ma assembles a shotgun that they go and shoot some trees with in the next scene

Aw yeah; here’s the scene where everybody is watching Rio Bravo (this is around 1959 when that film was made); love the editing between everybody’s faces, particularly the editing between Ma and Jade; I didn’t catch much of it watching this film the first time but when watching The Terrorizers especially I realized Yang is one of cinema’s great editors

After the movie, Chang and Ma go out on a double date with Jade and another girl done completely without speech; Chang is sitting with the girl and after a while they kiss eachother; this surprised me a little as I thought Chang would walk off without doing anything

I really don’t want to sound like I’m praising this film just for being long since I’m not; there is jaw-dropping cinema packed into virtually every second of this film; not a single scene it feels that doesn’t land in this 4-hour runtime

Love the yellow lighting and super long tracking shot as we follow Chang on his bicycle before switching our attention to this drunk guy walking along the street (who I think I recognize from other scenes… I think he’s the owner of a shop Chang’s dad often visits?)

A staggering jaw-dropper as the drunk man stands beside a street light and collapses; a true wall-art frame; actually it might just be the film’s singular shot; the yellow lighting really brings this scene alive

Another great photograph of Chang standing with his bike in the mechanic’s garage as a train passes by; the camera then turns into a great composition of some of the workers in the shop

Satire of Kuomintang government rhetoric about taking back the mainland and killing Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai

We’re back in the pool hall – which I forgot to mention earlier is operated by the 217s – and there’s more of that incredible red-tinged candle lighting and pitch blackness

Nice shot as you can see the Little Park Boys preparing to raid the 217 hangout in the rain; Chang is with them; he and Deuce are assigned to hold the flanks of the LPB offensive

Great intercutting as there is an establishing shot earlier of Sly playing poker at the ice cream parlor where there is a depressed prostitute and we cut back to their after the attack

Genius work with Chang and his flashlight as he explores the remains of the 217 gang, shining his flashlight on the surviving members in their dying moments; a particularly excellent moment as he holds up his katana to Shandong’s, the 217 leader, cleaver

This is followed up by another fantastic scene as Chang’s father is arrested by the Kuomintang for former CCP affiliations; stunning usage of rain during this entire segment of the film going as far back as the pool hall raid

Great imagery with these long hallways, big empty rooms, it looks like dirt and piss (yes, piss) in the Taiwanese prison Chang’s father is in; isolation; it’s a bit of a detour from the film’s main events but it’s a strong sequence; dark lighting at times to exemplify his position

Chang Kuo-chu is excellent in these scenes where he’s in prison; the smallest movement he makes says so much about his character; a big presence

I don’t know Chinese that well but I can tell from the pronunciation of Shanghai that I’m pretty certain the interrogator is speaking to the father in Shanghainese which is the father’s native tongue I believe

A great high-angle frame using some of the columns in the school shot from the side at 163 minutes

Another strong wall-art frame as Chang is in the doctor’s office and puts on a cowboy hat and pretends to be a Western gunslinger; I’m going to say this is formal as he’s probably inspired by watching Rio Bravo here; Ming walks in and there’s a cute scene where he puts the hat on her head

Things do come back in the film; Chang’s being seen with Ming at the shooting range is mentioned again, there’s of course the constant rumors about Sly with a girl at the film’s opening, Honey is constantly spoken of early in the film but we never know if he will ever actually appear…

Low angle shot – from Chang’s POV as we find out in a few seconds – of some of the windows in the girls’ school as he is looking for Ming who goes out to him; she’s made fun of by some of the other girls

We’re back with the dad in the interrogation chamber and the light illuminating the room is swinging; great movement in the shadows over his and the interrogator’s faces

Stunning imagery of the father totally alone in the cell before cutting away to the open door to his freedom with the beautiful flowering trees

His first action is to go to the shop where he is at at the beginning of the film where his wife also happens to go and there’s a fantastic scene where they just stare at eachother for a while

Chang Kuo-chu and Jin are in bed now and they’re shot at a high angle through the veil that seems to cover everyone’s beds in Taiwan

Yang has a cast of characters here that normally would take a full season of a TV show to flesh out at least and he does so in 4 hours of 1 film

A basketball player named Tiger is performing poorly, which I believed is because he has failed romantic aspirations towards Ming, who he’s seen looking at throughout the film; Chang and Ming talk about a man who is attracted to her and yet is suffering in life in the very next scene, which has this strong editing sequence between the two as a military convoy passes by them on the road

“A lot of guys say the love me, but the minute there’s trouble they all run away.” This is from a great scene between she and the doctor talking about their love lives

A formal moment of absolute genius as Chang picks up the baseball bat he lost 3 hours ago after getting yet another demerit like 2 hours ago and smashes a light in the principal’s office; we cut away to this staggering shot of everybody in the room (11 people) staring straight at the camera at different depths of field and covering the whole frame; this is followed up by the same tracking shot of Chang and his dad walking their bikes and they have virtually the same conversation as they did after the first demerit

I’ve heard Chang walk by a street seller saying “Dumplings and buns!” or “Buy some buns!” a billion times now; great form, not criticizing

An Excalibur-like shot (think of the one with that epic tree) of Chang and Ming sitting together at a tree by Chang’s bike at 191 minutes

Chang is hanging out with Ma, Cat and Airplane and they’re pretending to be ROC soldiers on patrol; among is with them as well

Ming, as a joke, holds one of Ma’s 1911s on Chang and accidentally fires like some idiot; thankfully, it held a blank and all she gets as punishment is a hard slap from Ma

Even the smallest aspects of the film, like a short cutaway just to Chang doing some homework, have the greatest of emotion contained within them; an absolute picture of Taiwanese society

Yep; I’m pretty sure now (don’t know about The Terrorizers) that there’s discussion about moving to America, like Yang did, in all of his films; Chang’s sister talks about heading stateside after graduating college

Chang’s middle sister reads his diary and sees his entry “The score with Sky will be settled by this day,” and sure enough we cut to the ice cream parlor run by the prostitute where Chang is sitting, and Sly goes to meet him there; Sly tries to make amends, but when he informs Chang that Ming has been seeing Ma, Chang isn’t really having it and Sly gets a hard slap in the face, but unlike Chang does not hold it against him; it is significant but also a bit jarring how much their characters have changed over time

He goes to see Ma right afterwards and most of their conversation takes place off-screen to emphasize the divide between Chang and the other characters that has developed over time; Ma insults Chang’s ability to provide for Ming like Honey could as well

An incredible shot of Chang looking like he’s hanging from a cross like Jesus surrounded by light at 206 minutes; his fall from grace

The mother’s watch has been stolen again; whereas the first time the sister blamed Chang but it was found to be Lao Er, this time she blames Lao are but it is understood to be Chang.

Chang, having lost Ming, is now going out with Jade to the movies, while Lao Er is going to the pool hall – which I’m surprised is still operating after the raid – to make a shitload of money

I couldn’t remember specifically from the first viewing but I had always expected that the reason Sly was so hostile to Chang hanging with Ming was because he would figure out he had been seeing Ming and it would get to Honey; Jade informs us of this here

A punishing long shot as the father, having lost everything – his job, his money… – beats Lao Er over the suspicion of the watch, which Chang had taken instead; Lao Er came home with a lot of money – finally winning at pool – to buy the watch back after Chang sold it but it was suspected that he got the money instead from selling the watch

Chang is in bed, talking I think to middle sister, when she says something that Honey had said to him once and he asks her if she had ever read War and Peace, a question Honey had asked him once

He goes to Ma’s house and they have at with eachother over Ming, so Cat goes to Chang to try to get them to make amends but fails

“She acts all natural-“ “Natural? You can’t even tell real from fake! How can you make movies?” Interesting commentary if this here represents a part of Yang’s worldview

Chang standing on the street with his knife at 221 minutes waiting for Ming; a beautiful frame

Incredible form here! Way back in the film there’s a scene where Ming is calling out Chang’s name as he runs to avoid her out into the market square but she catches up to him, and here, as he’s about to kill here, the very exact thing happens

The way they sort of move around together as he stabs her sort of looks like a couple having sex maybe?

When the family hears Chang has been arrested, middle sister, who he was closest to, runs in with tears pouring out of her eyes as father goes in without any expression on his face

Ma is being questioned as well because he gave everybody the swords that were used A) to commit the pool hall raid and B) to kill Ming; he appears nonchalant and uncaring when questioned but once alone, he breaks down having been an active participant in the loss of his greatest friend in Chang

Ming once remarked to Chang that she felt her doctor had affections for her and sure enough we get a scene with him showing his devastation as well over her death as he walks through his garden that had appeared previously

Just like at the beginning of the film we get the intertitles, here describing Chang’s initial death sentence which was later commuted to 16 or so years

More utterly staggering form here as Cat delivers a tape to Chang in prison describing his delivery of a performance of an Elvis song he made that he later sent to Elvis, who was impressed and sent Cat a ring; as this happens we watch Cat walk a very long distance before he leaves the screen and we cut; additionally the phrase “A Brighter Summer Day” can be heard

I believe the family is moving here and little sister accidentally knocks over the radio and turns it on, and we hear a radio broadcast of the names of the exceptional students like at the beginning of the film as the mother is doing laundry and comes across his school uniform, which she slowly brings close to her chest as more and more names are spoken

I did give up a chance to watch The Long Goodbye and The Bird With The Crystal Plumage to catch this again but I’m not sure I regret it; they stream for free with ads anyway so I guess it doesn’t really matter.

I was flat wrong the first time for sure having this as only a borderline masterpiece

I can’t deny I think it may be slightly superior to Yi Yi which is currently in my Top 40; A Brighter Summer Day is a massive achievement

A towering masterpiece