A Brighter Summer Day (1991)

Name: A Brighter Summer Day (1991)
Genre: Drama, Romance, Crime
Released: November 21, 2011
Duration: 237 min
Rating: 91

2011

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Universal acclaim based on 6 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Universal acclaim based on 23 Ratings

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8.3

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8.3	User Score Universal acclaim based on 23 Ratings

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Movie Details & Credits

Criterion Collection, The | Release Date: November 21, 2011 | Not Rated

Summary: A young man living in China during the 60s explores his rebellious inclinations and becomes entangled with a dangerous street gang that results in juvenile homicide.

Director: Edward Yang

Genre(s): Drama, Romance, Crime

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 237 min

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Critic Reviews

100

Josh Larsen

Jun 6, 2023

There is nothing like nostalgia here, but in the quiet consideration of how these days actually passed—what was dear about them, what was dangerous, and what has been irrevocably lost since then—A Brighter Summer Day gives early teen life, in all its complexity, a burnished reverence. Read full review

100

Nov 22, 2011

It's in his generous, objective use of long shots and spare but startling close-ups that we see once again the influence of Robert Altman in Yang's aesthetic and the struggle of the Taiwanese people to accept their history. In essence, Yang uses his aesthetic to bring into the light that which is dark. Read full review

A.O. Scott

Nov 25, 2011

It is a crowded, complex crime story that is also a tale of sexual awakening and an understated exercise in kitchen-sink realism. In short - or rather at mesmerizing, necessary length - this film has everything, and is well worth a day of your life. Read full review

Richard Brody

Mar 10, 2016

The story...opens out into a dazzling multigenerational array of characters, as well as a panoply of trenchant themes. Read full review

Simon Abrams

Mar 10, 2016

Yang's anti-nostalgic slice of 1960s Taipei life suggests a Tolstoy-size expansion of the ballads from Bruce Springsteen's Darkness on the Edge of Town. Read full review

The Guardian Jordan Hoffman

Mar 10, 2016

What makes this such a striking film is how the larger scope works perfectly in tandem with the very specific time and setting. Read full review

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User Reviews

JLuis_001

May 18, 2022

An epic that does full justice to something that can truly be called a masterpiece of cinema. The length may certainly be daunting for a certain part of the audience, but those 4 hours, despite the slow pace, never feel difficult or tedious.
It's a great example of how to allow a narrativeAn epic that does full justice to something that can truly be called a masterpiece of cinema. The length may certainly be daunting for a certain part of the audience, but those 4 hours, despite the slow pace, never feel difficult or tedious.
It's a great example of how to allow a narrative to flourish properly without feeling like there's filler in the story. Could things be edited from the plot? Of course, and the film would still work, but you would completely undermine what you need to let flow smoothly. What I liked most about this film is that it addresses something as common as the identity crisis experienced during adolescence, but here it mixes it with the feeling of not belonging to the only land they have ever known because most of the kids in this film are the sons of parents who left mainland China after the victory of the communists, so now they are in a place with which they do not share customs and the uncertainty of their future creates an atmosphere more than conflictive for them. And what's left? The search for belonging. In this case it translates into gangs that offer him an uncomfortable solidarity and a sense of loyalty that he can find in any other way. And it all unfolds in a criminal intrigue complex enough to justify its length, but also like I said, never complicated enough to overwhelm the audience.
It's the main impulse for a story that begs you to be absorbed in all its pieces and that answers you with an exceptional quality. A magnum opus… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

lasttimeisaw

Jun 15, 2014

A 228 minutes saga from the late Taiwanese director Edward Yang (Yi Yi 2000, 10/10; A CONFUCIAN’S CONFUSION 1994, 8/10), A BRIGHTER SUMMER DAY, whose literal translation of its original Chinese title is “The Murder Incident of the Boy on Guling Street”, is based on a true event in the 1960s,A 228 minutes saga from the late Taiwanese director Edward Yang (Yi Yi 2000, 10/10; A CONFUCIAN’S CONFUSION 1994, 8/10), A BRIGHTER SUMMER DAY, whose literal translation of its original Chinese title is “The Murder Incident of the Boy on Guling Street”, is based on a true event in the 1960s, a 14-year-old boy murdered his 13-year-old girlfriend, and became the first juvenile offender served in jail since millions of mainland Chinese retreated to Taiwan in 1949 after the civil war.

continue reading my review on my blog, google cinema omnivore, thanks… Expand

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

ahmedaiman1999

Apr 16, 2020

It plays out at first like City of God; part coming-of-age film and part gang-warfare epic. Gradually, the story unravels like a rich tapestry, interweaving a plethora of plotlines to finally reveal a sketch of tragedy in which its hero is doomed by fate to fail in a hopeless quest forIt plays out at first like City of God; part coming-of-age film and part gang-warfare epic. Gradually, the story unravels like a rich tapestry, interweaving a plethora of plotlines to finally reveal a sketch of tragedy in which its hero is doomed by fate to fail in a hopeless quest for identity; doomed by a tragic flaw he is always oblivious of till the very end. A benign flaw that everyone else possess, but only magnified and became fatal to the hero because of his nobility which in this world considered anomaly. A world in which everyone perpetually suffering for senselessly and selfishly parasitizing on each other in order to cope.

(8/10)… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

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