A Brighter Summer Day
Among the most praised and sought-after titles in all contemporary film, this singular masterpiece of Taiwanese cinema, directed by Edward Yang, finally comes to home video in the United States. Set in the early sixties in Taiwan, A Brighter Summer Day is based on the true story of a crime that rocked the nation. A film of both sprawling scope and tender intimacy, this novelistic, patiently observed epic centers on the gradual, inexorable fall of a young teenager (Chen Chang, in his first role) from innocence to juvenile delinquency, and is set against a simmering backdrop of restless youth, rock and roll, and political turmoil.
A Brighter Summer Day was restored in 2009 by the Cineteca di Bologna/L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory, in association with The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project, the Central Motion Picture Corporation, and the Edward Yang Estate. Scan performed at Digimax laboratories in Taipei. Restoration funded by Armani, Cartier, Qatar Airways, and Qatar Museum Authority.
TWO-BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
- New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- New audio commentary featuring critic Tony Rayns
- New interview with actor Chen Chang
- Our Time, Our Story, a 113-minute documentary from 2002 about the New Taiwan Cinema movement, featuring interviews with Yang and filmmakers Hou Hsiao-hsien, Sylvia Chang, and Tsai Ming-liang, among others
- Videotaped performance of director Edward Yang’s 1992 play Likely Consequence
- New English subtitle translation
- PLUS: An essay by critic Godfrey Cheshire and a 1991 director’s statement by Yang
Cover photograph by Edward Yang
TWO-BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
- New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- New audio commentary featuring critic Tony Rayns
- New interview with actor Chen Chang
- Our Time, Our Story, a 113-minute documentary from 2002 about the New Taiwan Cinema movement, featuring interviews with Yang and filmmakers Hou Hsiao-hsien, Sylvia Chang, and Tsai Ming-liang, among others
- Videotaped performance of director Edward Yang’s 1992 play Likely Consequence
- New English subtitle translation
- PLUS: An essay by critic Godfrey Cheshire and a 1991 director’s statement by Yang
Cover photograph by Edward Yang
Cast
- Chang Chen
- Xiao Si’r
- Lisa Yang
- Ming
- Chang Kuo-chu
- Father
- Elaine Jin
- Mother
- Wang Chuan
- Eldest sister
- Chang Han
- Lao Er (Elder brother)
- Chiang Hsiu-chiung
- Middle sister
- Stephanie Lai
- Youngest sister
- Wong Chi-zan
- Cat (Wang Mao)
- Lawrence Ko
- Airplane (Ji Fei)
- Tan Chih-kang
- Ma
- Chang Ming-hsin
- Underpants (Mingxin)
- Jung Chun-lung
- Sex Bomb (Chang Po-wen)
- Zhou Hui-guo
- Tiger (Xiao Hu)
- Tang Hsiao-tsui
- Jade (Xiao Cui)
- Lin Hong-ming
- Honey
- Bosen Wang
- Deuce
- Chen Hung-yu
- Sly (Huatou)
- Hsu Ming
- Wang
- Cho Ming
- Uncle Fat
Credits
- Director
- Edward Yang
- Produced by
- Yu Wei-yen
- Produced by
- Jan Hung-tze
- Produced by
- Edward Yang
- Executive producers
- Jan Hung-tze
- Executive producers
- Feng-Chyt Jiang
- Production manager
- Wu Zhuang
- Script and dialogue
- Hung Hung
- Script and dialogue
- Lai Ming-tang
- Script and dialogue
- Edward Yang
- Script and dialogue
- Alex Yang
- Cinematography
- Chang Hui-kung
- Cinematography
- Li Long-yu
- Edited by
- Bowen Chen
- Production design by
- Yu Wei-yen
- Production design by
- Edward Yang
- Costume design by
- Wu Le-chin
- Sound
- Tu Duu-chih
A scene from A Brighter Summer Day
