A Brighter Summer Day

Edward Yang (1947-2007) was one of the great young filmmakers of the Taiwanese New Wave of the 1980s and 1990s, internationally acclaimed for his Yi Yi, which won the Best Director prize at Cannes in 2000. Yet it's his fourth feature, A Brighter Summer Day, that is widely considered to be his masterpiece. Set in 1960 Taipei, the film is a sprawling, personal drama about the generation of kids born to the refugees who fled Communist China for Taiwan, centering specifically on Xiao Si'r (Chang Chen), an angry, alienated teenager who is searching for an identity in a culture that isn't strictly Chinese. Like their rebellious American counterparts, these teens turn to gangs and rock ‘n' roll. By the end, this nearly-four-hour epic tale has turned into a crime drama based on a real-life murder that shocked Taiwan, but the focus remains on the characters and their culture under an authoritarian government that is little better than the one the parents fled. Unlike his contemporaries Hou Hsiao-Hsien and Tsai Ming-liang, Yang's films were rarely seen in the U.S. outside of film festival showings; in fact, this 1991 film wasn't even released in the U.S. until 2011. Making its American home video debut on DVD and Blu-ray with a 4K digital restoration, extras include audio commentary by critic Tony Rayns, a feature-length documentary on the New Taiwan Cinema, a new interview with actor Chang Chen, and a video recording of a 1992 play by Yang. An overlooked masterpiece of world cinema marked by compelling character drama and rich period detail, this is highly recommended. (S. Axmaker)