A Brighter Summer Day

Gǔlǐng jiē shàonián shārén shìjiàn

The first of Edward Yang’s two undisputed masterpieces – a crime drama and coming-of-age tale that unfolds in late 1950s Taipei.

  • Director

    Edward Yang

  • With

    Chang Chen, Wong Chi-zan, Lisa Yang

  • Taiwan 1991. 237min

  • Digital 4K (restoration)

  • Certificate

    15

  • Mandarin and Taiwanese with English subtitles

The first of the director’s two masterpieces is widely recognised as one of the greatest films of the 1990s. Opening in 1959, the film follows Hsiao Si’r, the teenage son of middle-class parents who finds himself drawn into Taipei’s gang culture. With its rich use of colour and articulate exploration of inter-generational relationships, the film has been likened to Rebel Without a Cause. But in its uncompromising portrait of a criminal underworld and ambitious critique of Taiwan’s social strata, it also stands as a masterfully conceived crime epic whose socio-political dimensions add depth and detail.

A Brighter Summer Day was restored in 2009 by the Cineteca di Bologna/L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory, in association with The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project, the Central Motion Picture Corporation, and the Edward Yang Estate. Scan performed at Digimax laboratories in Taipei. Restoration funded by Armani, Cartier, Qatar Airways, and Qatar Museum Authority.