A summer to fall in love with
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | A summer to fall in love with |
| Original title | 牯 嶺 街 少年 殺人 事件 / 牯 岭 街 少年 杀人 事件(Gulingjie Shaonian Sharen Shijian) |
| Country of production | Republic of China (Taiwan) |
| original language | Mandarin , Taiwanese |
| Publishing year | 1991 |
| length | 237 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Edward Yang |
| script | Edward Yang, Hung Hung, Lai Ming-tang, Alex Yang |
| production | Edward Yang, Yu Wei-yen, Jan Hung-tze |
| music | Hongda Zhang |
| camera | Chang Hui-kung, Li Long-yu |
| cut | Po-Wen Chen |
| occupation | |
| |
A summer to fall in love with is a Taiwanese fictional film by Edward Yang from 1991. The four-hour work offers a panorama of Taiwanese society in the early 1960s, at the center of which is fights between rival youth gangs and the life of the main character, the teenager Xiao, and stand by his family. The original title Gulingjie Shaonian Sharen Shijian (牯 嶺 街 少年 殺人 事件 / 牯 岭 街 少年 杀人 事件) translates as "Youth Murder Case on Guling Street", the film is also known internationally by its English title A Brighter Summer Day . Over the years since its release, Yang's film has slowly but steadily gained wide international recognition.
action
Taipei in 1960 . The 14-year-old student Chang Chen, known by everyone as Xiao Si'r ("little four" because he is the fourth of five children), received a poor grade in a subject last year. Although all other subjects were successful and he is actually a good student, he had to switch from the “day school” to the “ evening school ”. His father, a middle-class government official, is unhappy about this because the evening schools have a bad reputation. At the school, which is characterized by military rigor, the students are often only addressed by the teachers using the numbers assigned to them.
The father's concerns are not without reason: there are always brutal clashes between the Little Park Boys and the 217s , two youth gangs. Honey, the charismatic leader of the Little Park Boys, has been missing from town for some time after killing one of the 217s in an argument over his girlfriend Ming. Xiao Si'r does not belong to the gangs, but because of his family background he is closer to the Little Park Boys, who mainly include the children of government officials who fled from mainland China (the so-called “ Waishengren"), While among the 217s, the children of the" Benshengren "are more likely to have lived in Taiwan before. The students also have sexual experiences: one evening Si'r discovers something is moving in a darkened classroom and turns on his flashlight. He disturbs a young couple in love, whose identity he cannot recognize.
Xiao Si'r is increasingly drawn into the conflicts reluctantly: Sly, who is unsympathetic to him and who leads the Little Park Boys in the absence of Honey, pecks at him during a class test. They are caught and Sly is expelled from school, but Si'r also receives a warning from the narrow-minded headmaster. Si'r becomes friends with Ming, Honey's former friend, who is actually closer to the 217ers from her background, and therefore becomes the focus of the two gangs. Ming lives with her mother, who has a lung condition, under poor circumstances. She is considered a beauty and a director who is shooting a period film in a film studio right next to school may even want to enable her to enter the film business.
Sly tries to make peace between the two gangs. A jointly organized concert at which Western pop music is to be played plays a central role here. A few days before the concert, however, Honey turns up unexpectedly in Taipei, disguised as a sailor. There is a dispute over the Little Park Boys between him and Sly, which the latter wins. Honey talks to Si'r about his time on the run, his reading of war and peaceand doesn't blame him for going out with Ming while he was away. During the pop concert, Honey appears alone in front of the 217s and exchanges condescending words with them. After being nearly beaten by them, he declares that he wants to make peace in the future. So he goes for a walk with Shandong, the leader of the 217s, but the latter throws him from behind in front of an approaching vehicle. The police declare Honey's death to be an accident, which the Little Park Boys obviously don't believe. Ma, son of an influential general and Xiao Si'r's classmate, procures tangible weapons for the Little Park Boys. During a typhoon , they invade the headquarters of the 217 and cause a bloodbath in which Shandong, among others, dies.
Meanwhile, Xiao Si'r's father is arrested by the secret police and questioned about his past and his circle of friends. He is released after interrogation, but has been downgraded at his job and struggles with depression and paranoia after being detained. Above all, he wonders why and for what purpose the surveys were held. His wife assumes that an old school friend of his father, who is in a high social position and is therefore sometimes asked for favors by him, was responsible. The father doesn't want to know anything about it. His wife advises him to get out of his government job to go into business and be more independent there.
Xiao Si'r has started a relationship with Ming and has also achieved success at school. After a while, however, he began to have doubts about Ming's loyalty, especially since she flirted with the adult school doctor, among other things. When Si'r meets the already engaged doctor and insults him, he is expelled from the school by the headmaster. Si'r's father, who confidently defended his son on a previous visit to the headmaster's office, no longer has the courage to do anything about it. From now on Si'r will continue to study at home in order to pass his exams and then be able to attend day school again. Si'r is becoming increasingly bitter and Ming is sad because she will see him less in the future when he goes to day school again. Sly, who stayed in hiding after the bloodbath of the 217s, apologizes to Si'r for earlier disputes and tells him that Ming is also secretly going with the son-general Ma. In revenge, Si'r meets with Jade, a friend of Ming's. However, Jade soon realizes that Si'r is not genuinely interested in her and reveals to him that he saw Sly and Ming kissing together that one evening in the classroom.
Si'r feels betrayed by his girlfriend and close friend Ma. The jealous Si'r steals his friend Cat's knife and waits for Ma in front of the school. The mutual friends of the two ensure that the two rivals do not clash. Eventually he meets Ming and insults her for her promiscuity. He wanted to change her, but she explained to him that she couldn't change and that his aggressive demeanor was not as special as she initially thought. He then stabs her in his anger and temporarily loses her mind over this guilt. At the police station, he calls for Ming. Xiao Si'r is sentenced to death for murder, but due to his minority and social discussion, the sentence is later reduced to 15 years in prison. Finally, you see his mother hanging up washed clothes. Unexpectedly, she finds her son's old school uniform and weeps into it. Meanwhile, as at the beginning of the film, a list of particularly outstanding students is being read out on the radio.
Historical background
Edward Yang's film is embedded in a special time in Taiwanese society. Taiwan was under the rule of the Japanese Empire from 1895 until the end of World War II and then fell to the Republic of China . However, after their defeat in the Chinese Civil War in 1949, the old elites of the Republic of China lost power to the communists and Mao Zedong then proclaimed the People's Republic of China for the Chinese mainland . Mao's opponents, including many government officials and the military with their families, fled to Taiwan and established their own Republic of China on Taiwan. These nearly two million people who have fled the mainland are known as " Waishengren ". In the time of Yang's film, around 1960, it became increasingly apparent that the exile would be permanent for the Chinese living in Taiwan.
Under the leadership of Chiang Kai-shek , the Kuomintang became the leading party in Taiwan, which for a period of 38 years until 1987 permanently imposed martial law and was thus able to rule largely dictatorially. Since the country was in a delicate political situation and the Kuomintang government is under constant threat to China in the Taiwan conflictsaw a strong militarism prevailed. The Waishengren occupied most of the important social posts in this regime, much to the annoyance of the majority of the Benshengren population, who had previously lived in Taiwan and were significantly poorer and less educated. In the film, the children of both population groups find themselves in a spiral of violence. The massacre of some of the Benshengren youths in the middle of the film goes unpunished in the end.
In the so-called “ White Terror“Tens of thousands of people were arrested, tortured and in some cases killed in the Kuomintang, suspected of being linked to communism. This is shown in the film by the arrest of Xiao's father, who initially appears as an upright and free-spirited character, after his remand as a broken man. Yang's film was made in 1991 during a transitional phase in which the increasing democratization of Taiwanese society was progressing and for the first time allowed criticism of earlier conditions. Yang's co-screenwriter Wang Wang emphasized, however, that Yang did not want to make a controversial film and that the portrayal of White Terror was also not controversial, as it was a social experience of both Waishengren and Benshengren.
A summer to fall in love with reflects the then new and increasingly intense pop culture influences from the USA on everyday life in East Asia. The song Are You Lonesome Tonight? in the version by Elvis Presley sounds several times and takes a not unimportant position in the film. The English film title A Brighter Summer Day is derived from the line of text Does your memory stray to a brighter summer day in this song. Other songs from the rock 'n' roll era can also be heard in the film either in their original versions or covered by the Taiwanese youth, according to Why by Frankie Avalon ,Angel Baby by Rosie and the Originals , Don't Be Cruel by Elvis Presley and the Ricky Nelson songs Poor Little Fool and Never Be Anyone Else But You . In the cinema, the young people watch the western Rio Bravo (1959) with John Wayne in one scene . The clash between Asian and American culture is also evident in the weapons that the students use in the course of the film, both baseball bats and samurai swords are used.
Production history
Edward Yang used a real murder case as a template for the murder, in which on June 15, 1961, a young person was murdered by her classmate in Taipei. Yang, who was born in 1947 and belonged to the same generation as the young people in the film, was influenced by autobiographical influences and experiences of his youth in other elements of the film.
With a total of over 100 speaking roles in the film, Yang needed a large cast. Many of the young actors were amateurs with no prior film experience, including leading actor Chang Chen in his film debut. Chen's father, actor Chang Kuo-chu, also plays his father in the film.
reception
publication
A summer to fall in love with was successful in Taiwan, but the film did not make it to the major film festivals in Europe and the USA when it was released, which was obviously also due to its extraordinary length. Therefore, Yang edited his four-hour version down to almost three hours, which particularly affected the scenes with the father and the "White Terror". This three-hour version was also broadcast on 3sat on May 18, 1999 ; there were apparently no other broadcast dates on German television.
It was not until the film was released in theaters in the USA in 2011 (now again in its four-hour original version), which was driven by Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Project , and the film was released on the Criterion Collection label in 2016 for the first time in a larger format Attention in the western world. On film rating sites such as the Internet Movie Database or Letterboxd , the film receives quite high ratings from audiences today.
Awards
A summer to fall in love ran successfully at several film festivals after its release, especially in Asia. At the Golden Horse Awards he was honored in the category Best Film and at the Tokyo International Film Festival he received a special jury award. The film was submitted for the 1992 Academy Awards as a Taiwanese nomination in the running for the Oscar for best foreign language film , but was not nominated.
A 2018 survey by the BBC asked about the best non-English language films in world cinema from among 209 critics from 43 countries. A summer to fall in love with was ranked 38th here.
Reviews
The film had the reputation of an insider tip among critics and film buffs and appeared in some of the critics' lists of the best films of the decade in the late 1990s. In the meantime, the film's popularity grew and many voices declared it a masterpiece and modern classic. The They Shoot Pictures, Don't They? , which calculates various critics' surveys from the last few decades, ranks the film 121st among the “1000 most renowned films” (as of November 2020). On the US critic portal Rotten Tomatoes all 20 reviews for the film are positive. The critical consensus there was: “Edward Yang shows A Brighter Summer Day as a fantastic cinematic and artistic achievement Youth, ideals, violence and politics in a melancholy, tender light, culminating in a complex portrait of Taiwanese identity. "
The film service judges that a summer to fall in love is a “sprawling epic” and a “masterful study of insecurity, violence and destruction in an era of communist hatred and desperate maintenance of the Kuomintang's dream of returning to their homeland, the (communist) mainland . ”Yang staged the film in a“ virtuoso ”manner in a“ multi-layered mixture of various styles, whereby sensitively designed beauty stands seamlessly alongside crass naturalism. ”
In 2000, Tony Rayns wrote about the film for the Independent when it first appeared in the UK in full length. What is remarkable about the film is that none of the 100 or so roles seem stereotyped or cheaply written. The “combination of complex action and Yang's predilection for ellipses and suggestions“I invite you to meet again several times. Thematically, the film deals with Taiwanese history and connects it with individual fates, so it becomes clear that the unlawful arrest of the father also contributes to the young main character losing his sense of right and wrong behavior. Last but not least, it is a film about “upbringing” and the formation of a character, not only through schooling and the pressure to perform at school, but also through the upbringing of parents, the influence of peer groups and general circumstances.
On the occasion of the first major release of the film in the United States, AO Scott wrote about the film in the New York Times on November 24, 2011. It is a work of "absolute mastery", a "wonderful film" and an "essential work of modern cinema". In terms of film history, the film ties in with many classics, but is more than the sum of its references and associations courageous artistic vision to reveal the structure and feeling of a whole world. "
Jordan Hoffmann said in 2016 in The Guardian that the term “ Shakespearan ” applies to the films : The tragedy in the film feels inevitable and almost necessary for society to learn from the pain it has suffered. A Brighter Summer Day also includes many lighter moments that are presented through dry humor. The camera remains noticeably distant from the characters through many medium and long shots, but this overall “larger scope” of the film functions as a “perfect tandem” with the very specific setting of the film.
In a 2016 essay about the film, Godfrey Chesire wrote that A Brighter Summer Day had two faces: the portrayal of the main character's family life and that of the conflicts between the youth gangs. "The outer face is a very critical look at a society in which all legitimate authority - a very Confucian concern - has been eroded or subverted so that a young man like Xiao Si'r is drawn into a spiral of violence," as it is the original Chinese title of the film suggests. “The inner longing,” says Chesire, “is through the lyrics of the Elvis Presley hit Are You Lonesome Tonight? that gave the film its English title, and has little to do with Taiwan, but more with a state that is not bound by time and place: the loneliness, melancholy and the desire of adolescence. "
Web links
- A summer to fall in love in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ KUO Wen-shin: President Tsai commemorates the 30th anniversary of the abolition of martial law. July 18, 2017, accessed November 14, 2020 .
- ↑ Foreign Office: Taiwan: Political Portrait. Retrieved November 14, 2020 .
- ↑ The past that does not want to pass. Retrieved November 14, 2020 .
- ↑ Andrew Chan: Talking with Screenwriter Hung Hung About A Brighter Summer Day. Retrieved November 20, 2020 .
- ^ A Brighter Summer Day (1991) - IMDb. Retrieved November 14, 2020 .
- ↑ Sean Gilman: A Brighter Summer Day (Edward Yang, 1991). November 6, 2017, accessed November 19, 2020 .
- ↑ Curtis Tsui: 10 Things I Learned: A Brighter Summer Day. Retrieved November 14, 2020 .
- ↑ Andrew Chan: Talking with Screenwriter Hung Hung About A Brighter Summer Day. Retrieved November 14, 2020 .
- ^ Godfrey Cheshire: A Brighter Summer Day: Coming of Age in Taipei. Retrieved November 16, 2020 .
- ↑ Andrew Chan: Talking with Screenwriter Hung Hung About A Brighter Summer Day. Retrieved November 16, 2020 .
- ↑ ARD program: A SUMMER TO LOVE. Retrieved November 16, 2020 .
- ↑ David Brook: A Brighter Summer Day - Criterion Collection Blu-Ray Review. In: Blueprint: Review. August 7, 2017, accessed November 15, 2020 .
- ^ A. O SCOTT: Displaced, Disaffected and Desperate to Connect (Published 2011) . In: The New York Times . November 24, 2011, ISSN 0362-4331 ( nytimes.com [accessed November 15, 2020]).
- ^ Tokyo International Film Festival (1991). Retrieved November 15, 2020 .
- ↑ See List of Taiwanese submissions for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film on Wikipedia
- ^ The 100 greatest foreign-language films. Retrieved November 14, 2020 .
- ^ Godfrey Cheshire: A Brighter Summer Day: Coming of Age in Taipei. Retrieved November 15, 2020 .
- ↑ A modern classic made in Taiwan. April 7, 2000, accessed November 20, 2020 .
- ↑ TSPDT - 1,000 Greatest Films (Full List). Retrieved November 20, 2020 .
- ^ A Brighter Summer Day (1991). Retrieved November 15, 2020 .
- ↑ A summer to fall in love with. Retrieved November 14, 2020 .
- ↑ A modern classic made in Taiwan. April 7, 2000, accessed November 20, 2020 .
- ^ A. O SCOTT: Displaced, Disaffected and Desperate to Connect (Published 2011) . In: The New York Times . November 24, 2011, ISSN 0362-4331 ( nytimes.com [accessed November 15, 2020]).
- ↑ Jordan Hoffmann: A Brighter Summer Day review - teenage kicks from an arthouse master. March 9, 2016, accessed November 19, 2020 .
- ^ Godfrey Cheshire: A Brighter Summer Day: Coming of Age in Taipei. Retrieved November 19, 2020 .