Edward Yang’s epic and stylistically impressive A Brighter Summer Day from 1991 is set in Taipei in the early 1960s. Yang’s masterpiece has hundreds of speaking roles, but focuses on 14-year-old Xiao Si’r. He grows up in an oppressive atmosphere and is having a hard time at school. Together with his friends Cat and Airplane, he slowly becomes influenced by ‘Little Park’, the local gang, and becomes involved in a gang war. With this semi-autobiographical story, Yang also touches on more extensive themes such as the quest for one’s own identity and the battle between the increasing Americanisation of Taiwan and the conservative traditionalism of a country that has always felt China breathing down its neck. The extra long version of the film, which was recently restored by the World Cinema Foundation, will be screened. Edward Yang died in 2007 at the age of 59.
