Edward Yang, “A Brighter Summer Day” (1991)

Edward Yang, “A Brighter Summer Day” (1991)

The film A Brighter Summer Day depicts the tragic story of how Xiao Si’r, the so-called model student of his school, ends up committing a murder. He is a young idealistic and stubborn boy, educated by a principled father who despises compromises. Yet his idealism clashes with the corruption and turbulence of the 1960s Taiwan he must navigate through. Xiao Si’r believes he can save the girl he loves ”Ming”from the street gang politics which keeps pestering her life and boys who would only think of her as a prize girlfriend. In his eyes, he and Ming stood against the failing world desecrated by compromises unkept and violence unjustified.

Yet even Ming turns out to resist his idea of her. Rumors would circulate: Ming was the one who had kissed Tiger that night; she flirts with other boys. Ming herself would resist Xiao Si’r and think of his desire to save her rubbish. His idea of her cracked under Ming’s dismissiveness; and then and there, she suddenly seemed helpless to him: helpless, corrupt, and capricious like the rest of the world. She could never become his idea of her. Then to save Her, he had to kill her. 

The world could not be remade into the ideals of Xiao Si’r. His outburst to save Her, or rather his idea of her, ultimately took away from him both the person of Ming and the very thing he attempted to salvage when he came to realize the gravity of his act.

The Image of the Savior 

Xiao Si’r clumsily walked over to the bustling streets with the knife, his knife kept tucked between the bands of his trousers. Right before this, we see Xiao Si’r holding on to the wooden beam of the frame that connects the two living rooms. His arms are wide open; his head hanging sideways; his body in the center of the frame, like Christ crucified.

He had talked to his sister, a Christian. She said in his idealism he fails to credit the people around him. He is willing to see their faults and the faults of the world at large, but never his own. She wanted him to visit her at the church tomorrow evening. He never showed up; he was waiting for Ming.

I cannot help but mull over this imagery, his ideals and disillusionments. The ideals may be about his relationship here; but the 3-hour film encompassed so much more, from family life to school gang politics.

Watch “A Brighter Summer Day”: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101985/ 

Written August 9, 2024.

HL from NC, U.S.A.