A Brighter Summer Day (1991) Movie Review

Written Review: boxd.it/wfzSF
Plot: A boy experiences first love, friendships and injustices growing up in 1960s Taiwan.
Director: Edward Yang
This video is part of my classics series, where I pick one of my favourite films, rewatch it, then review it.
More favourites: boxd.it/JMNc
Letterboxd: letterboxd.com...
Twitter: / darrencarverb

[@TheEditorChris]

Possibly the best film I've seen in the last 10 years. Lucky enough to see this in the theatre, and the 4 hours flew by as the audience and I were completely engrossed in the film. Your review does this important masterpiece justice. Great work.

[@MrRenegadePhoenix]

Thank you very much! I'm very jealous that you got to see this in a theatre. It is an engrossing masterpiece, and it's also one of the best films I've seen in the past few years.

[@ThisWillMakeYourDay]

This was a great review! After watching the film for the first time many months ago I initially looked for a video like this that discussed some of the films underlying themes. I’m really glad I stumbled upon this! Keep up the good work man :)

[@MrRenegadePhoenix]

Thanks so much. I'm really glad this video was useful. You can check out my written review in the description too where I go into more detail about A Brighter Summer Day.

[@audrey9286]

This is such a great review! I'm from taipei.i've recently just watched this film and now it means so much to me. It's amazing seeing how different life was back then but still the theme of self-identity continues in the current political state of taiwan. by the way, remember a scene where the main character's school was in a basketball match with another school? That's the school i go to!

[@MrRenegadePhoenix]

Thank you! Self-identity is something that all teenagers struggle with, but the setting of A Brighter Summer Day allows it to come to the fore. I think it will always be a relevant and important film. I do remember that scene. That is an amazing coincidence. I imagine A Brighter Summer Day will be even more powerful and meaningful to you then.

[@Marcel_Audubon]

We don't see Honey ascending, that has happened well before the events of the movie. The Honey we meet is a character who has outgrown the gang. He's older than the other guys, he doesn't want to be their god any longer. He's grown up. He barely gives the time of day to the girl. He's moved on already. We don't see what he was like in the earlier years, but can guess he wasn't the quiet, thoughtful man who came home for a last time. Unfortunately, he gets drawn back into the gang web he himself created in earlier days and it proves to be his undoing.

[@theguywhoedits7460]

Bro do u have letterboxd ?

[@Marcel_Audubon]

@@theguywhoedits7460 nope. is it any good?

[@theguywhoedits7460]

@@Marcel_Audubon yes bro, darren is available there too

[@theguywhoedits7460]

@@Marcel_Audubon btw you said Days of Being Wild is your fav WKW film in a comment , i have uploaded an edit of it on my channel . Please check it out !

[@Marcel_Audubon]

@@theguywhoedits7460 I'll have a look. Thanks.

[@erikknox7730]

Best analysis yet

[@MrRenegadePhoenix]

Wow, thank you!

[@Marcel_Audubon]

One of my favorite movies, too. I love the length and pace of the storytelling which leave you feeling you truly come to know early '60s Taiwan to a level completely unexpected from watching a film. I remember having my eyes opened the first time I saw it to how much the same the Taiwanese and Mainlanders were ... well, of course they were, many had just come from there! Forced interrogation would seem normal to that generation, not an intolerable surrendering of rights. I don't think the regime has any interest in 'truth' in those interrogations, it's just a form of control and intimidation just as those techniques were under Mao on the mainland. That surprised me. A real masterpiece spinning the political, familial, tribal, criminal dimensions of the story together in tight integration. Hard to believe it could be done in four short hours!