A deeply personal epic comparable in scope and impact to the Godfather movies and Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in America, Edward Yang’s extraordinary memory film stretches tautly over four hours of screen time and more than 100 speaking parts. Set in the early 1960s (Yang’s own teenage years) and inspired by the true story of Taiwan’s first juvenile homicide case, the film follows rebellious teenager Xiao Si’r (future Happy Together and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon star Chang Chen) as he comes of age amidst rival street gangs and the “White Terror” witch hunts of Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang government. Few movies more readily call to mind the great, sprawling novels of the 19th century and their portraits of ordinary individuals caught in the maelstrom of a changing society. Never before released in the United States and unavailable on DVD, A Brighter Summer Day finally comes to audiences in a new restoration by the World Cinema Foundation of Yang’s original director’s cut. —Film Society of Lincoln Center


Written by Hung Hung, Mingtang Lai, Alex Yang, Edward Yang. Photographed by Huigong Li, Longyu Zhang. With Chang Chen, Chang Kuo-Chu, Elaine Jin, Lisa Yang, Wong Chizan, Lawrence Ko, Tan Zhigang, Lin Hongming. (237 min. In Mandarin with subtitles. World Cinema Foundation)