• One of the great titles in cinema- if Harmony Korine’s Spring Breakers were called “Rebels of the Neon God” I think it would have twice the reputation it does now
  • Ming-liang Tsai’s impressive debut. The parallel story of two troubled teens in Taipei, Taiwan. A story of disillusioned and disconnected youth
  • Early in the film a struggling cockroaches is killed- reminded me a little of the scorpion metaphor in the opening of The Wild Bunch

Early in the film a struggling cockroaches is killed- reminded me a little of the scorpion metaphor in the opening of The Wild Bunch

  • Clearly influenced by Kar-Wai Wong (without his lyricism) and the French New Wave (particularly Breathless) – Ming-liang Tsai’s handheld camera is just floating through the neon lights of arcades, roller-skating rinks, on the streets with motorbikes, in damp, depressing small apartments with pictures of scantily-clad women on the walls
  • There is a little inner-city ennui going on here- and a nice pan-left shot at the 36 minute mark that is held for two minutes (red flashing lights from the construction site). The two characters walk behind the camera and go back into the shot after the camera pans away from them. A sublime shot.
  • Four or five times the memorable synthesized musical motif drops in
  • Certainly the James Dean Rebel Without a Cause cutout is important. There’s a generational conflict with his parents- particularly his father. But the youth never connect with each other either. Hsiao-Hsien Hou’s 1985 A Time to Live and a Time to Die feels like an important text/influence as well — straying off the path in adolescence  and also a statement on doomed modernity

Certainly the James Dean Rebel Without a Cause cutout is important. There’s a generational conflict with his parents- particularly his father. But the youth never connect with each other either. Hsiao-Hsien Hou’s 1985 A Time to Live and a Time to Die feels like an important text/influence as well — straying off the path in adolescence  and also a statement on doomed modernity 

  • The use of the lime/neon green color is no coincidence- the stools in the arcade, the wheels of the skates, the accentuated curtains in their dueling hotel rooms as the two lead characters living separate lives finally collide. Ming-liang Tsai is almost telling us the “making of a criminal” story without the moralization. One of the boys is about 18 months behind the other in his descent.   Ming-liang Tsai is making that link with the editing. He matches them through editing as they wash their face and take a drink in the hotel room next to each other at the 76 minute mark

The use of the lime/neon green color is no coincidence- the stools in the arcade, the wheels of the skates, the accentuated curtains in their dueling hotel rooms as the two lead characters living separate lives finally collide.

  • As a child of the early 1990’s- love the Street Fighter video game
  • The film ends on a strong red construction like flashing held master shot. It is a call back to the pan-left shot at the 36 minute mark and then Ming-liang Tsai tilts the camera up to the sky/heavens

The film ends on a strong red construction like flashing held master shot. It is a call back to the pan-left shot at the 36 minute mark and then Ming-liang Tsai tilts the camera up to the sky/heavens

  • Recommend/Highly Recommend border