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

Episodes of 100 characters that were created

If you were to summarize the story of ``A Brighter Summer Day'' by paying attention to its historical background and some psychological aspects, you would probably end up with something similar to what I have written so far. Although the story has multiple plots involving various characters running parallel and sometimes intertwining, the main plot of the story is simple.

However, that alone does not mean that we have understood anything about the ``A Brighter Summer Day.'' This is because, as I mentioned at the beginning, the emphasis of this work is not on the circumstances leading up to Xiaosi's murder of Xiaoming, but on the ``environment'' leading up to the incident. The background seems to be just one factor.

As many staff members and people involved can attest, Edward Yang is a filmmaker who crafts stories with extreme precision. After The Graduate from a university in Taiwan, Yang studied electrical engineering in the United States and attempted to study film at the University of Southern California, but was disappointed with the content and dropped out. After that, I worked in computer-related work for a while. Yang, who is a hard-core science major, was said to have the tendency to put together the structure logically from the beginning of production.

“A Brighter Summer Day” (C) 1991 Kailidoscope

It is obvious at a glance that the drama of ``A Brighter Summer Day'' is very structured. For example, all sorts of motifs are repeated throughout the movie, including items such as flashlights, bats, and swords, Elvis Presley songs, tanks that appear with a violent presence, and situations where fathers and sons stand side by side. Sometimes, by repeating screen compositions and camera angles, he overlays different situations and images of different people. Another unique feature is that if you fold the movie right in the middle of the running time, it's as if the beginning and end overlap. The movie studio, the closet where Xiaosi sleeps, the billiards hall, the father and son's bicycles, and the nighttime Lingling Street where Xiaosi and Xiaoming walk side by side are all memorable scenes at the beginning and end of the story. Appear.

One of the screenwriters, Hongya Yang, revealed that the script for this film was written through repeated discussions among four members, including director Yang. It seems that the decision was made after deep discussions about the characters' inner lives. According to film critic Tony Rains, Yang considered the backgrounds and personalities of about 100 characters and created a story that would take place before and after the film. If they had made a sequel drama series, it would have been about 300 episodes in total, so it is certain that they had more material than they could have imagined. Inuhiko Yomota, a researcher who was close friends with Yang, also recorded an episode in which, after the completion of this work, Yang talked about wanting to make a film about the character's ``after''.

“A Brighter Summer Day” (C) 1991 Kailidoscope

However, it is. Despite the world of the work being so thoroughly constructed, and despite the long length of 3 hours and 56 minutes, ``A Brighter Summer Day'' feels like it's just a fingerless movie as soon as you try to understand something. As if slipping through the gap, it becomes impossible to grasp it. Why did Xiaosi fall in love with Xiaoming? Why did Xiaoming have romantic relationships with multiple men? And in the end, why did Xiaosi have to kill Xiaoming? It seems impossible to provide answers to these questions that will satisfy everyone.

That's not all. Yang is determined to withhold important parts of the story from the audience. When she found out that Xiao Ma, who had become close friends with Xiao Ma, was actually in a romantic relationship with Xiao Ming, how did Xiao Si go to see him at his house? What kind of expression did Ko4 listen to when he realized that Hoatou, the villain of Kokoen with whom he had a violent confrontation, had completely become a real human being? Or what did the man from the general security department say to the fourth grader's father at the door when he came to his house on a rainy night? And what exactly happened in the darkness of the power outage on the night 217 was attacked? They are all invisible to the audience, and their voices are also inaudible.

“The Intolerance that cannot be filled” in a perfectly constructed world