“A Brighter Summer Day” A “Intolerance that cannot be filled” in a perfectly constructed world *Note! Contains spoilers.

Youth, violence, and political struggles

``A Brighter Summer Day'' is a gangster movie. The logic that Wang Kuozheng spoke to Ko4's father is reminiscent of "non-blood ties" like gangsters and yakuza, and their sons' generation has literally turned into gangsters. Boys, who are in a more unstable position than adults, seek stability in belonging to a group, find their home in delinquent groups, and are willing to commit violence. In addition, the girls around Ko4 also reveal other insecurities. For example, Xiaoming has no father, and her mother is sickly, making life difficult. They seek belonging from men and use them to gain a foothold.

Perhaps because he grew up in a relatively wealthy family and saw his father as having an upright personality, Koji did not become actively involved in delinquent groups at first. The change occurs when he realizes that Komei's lover is Honey, the leader of Kokoen. After Honey returned to Taipei, she said to Xiao Si, ``Xiao Ming loves you,'' as if entrusting her to him. Later, when Honey is killed by Shandong, the leader of the rival group 217, Xiaosi begins to feel the need to protect Xiaoming. The scene where Xiao Fourth runs up to Xiao Ming at school and tells him, ``Don't worry, I'll protect you,'' is one of the most famous scenes in the movie.

“A Brighter Summer Day” (C) 1991 Kailidoscope

In this way, the love story between Xiaosi and Xiaoming and the struggle between the delinquents come together as one plot. However, Edward Yang prepared a further development and thoroughly pushed the fourth grader. It turns out that Komei did not refuse Koushi's words, "I will protect you," and was actually in a romantic relationship with multiple men, not just Honey. Furthermore, in response to Honey's death, the people of the Ministry of Home Affairs take action, and 217 is attacked in the darkness on the night of a typhoon. Koji also participates in the attack, but he can't really do anything. All he could do was turn on his heel as he looked at his lover who was crying beside the dying Shantou.

Around the same time as the attack, Koji's father was suspected and interrogated by the General Security Bureau. In Taiwan, which was under martial law, the Nationalist Party used forceful interrogation and torture to expose people as Communist spies, and conducted purges one after another (there were countless false accusations at the time). It seems that Ko4's father escaped being tortured to the extent depicted in the movie. However, instead, my father suffered a major setback. For an unfathomable crime, he sold his acquaintances - in Wang's words, ``relatives'' - to the government. When his father returned home, his mental state deteriorated, and the family lost its former peace.

At this point, the shadow of politics and power clings tightly to this fourth-grade story about love and violence. The interrogation of the father cast a dark shadow on the family, and also likely fostered a sense of resistance in the fourth grade against the authority of the ``teacher.'' Concerned about his studies, his position with his friends and group, and his relationship with Xiaomei, Koji gets angry and confronts authorities. In front of the head teacher who insults his father, the fourth grader smashes a light bulb with a baseball bat and leaves the school. However, now that he has lost his affiliation and is no longer supported by his family, his identity is starting to lose its footing. As a result, Xiaosi's obsession with Xiaoming deepens, and the story quickly descends into tragedy.

Episodes of 100 characters that were created