A BRIGHTER SUMMER DAY
Director: Edward Yang Run Time: 237 min. Release Year: 1991 Language: Chinese
Starring: Chang Chen, Chang Kuo-Chu, Elaine Jin Yan-Ling, Lisa Yang, Wang Chuan
Among the most praised and sought-after titles in all contemporary film, this singular masterpiece of Taiwanese cinema, directed by Edward Yang is finally available for US audiences. Set in the early sixties in Taiwan, A Brighter Summer Day is based on the true story of a crime that rocked the nation. A film of both sprawling scope and tender intimacy, this novelistic, patiently observed epic centers on the gradual, inexorable fall of a young teenager (Chen Chang, in his first role) from innocence to juvenile delinquency, and is set against a simmering backdrop of restless youth, rock and roll, and political turmoil.