Rebels of the Neon God
Tsai Ming-liang / TW, 1992 / 106 min.
Taipei, the early 1990s. The economies of Southeast Asia are booming, but it hardly seems to trigger the young. They hang around, without any goals or ambitions. Tsai Ming-liang’s first full-length feature film is a sketch of a friendship between two boys in a metropolis. Motorbikes, video games and girls are the ingredients of this film, underscored by atmospheric guitar music.
Tsai Ming-liang’s camera follows Hsiao Kang and Ah Tze: one a teenage slacker who fails his exams and gets thrown out of the house, the other a juvenile delinquent with a quick temper. One rides a scooter, the other a motorbike which is his pride and joy. In long, lingering shots, Tsai registers how the boys' lives intersect: with admiration, attraction and aggression; the homo-erotic undertone is unmistakeable.
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Details
Director
Tsai Ming-liang
Production year
1992
Country
TW
Original title
Ching shao nien na cha
Length
106 min.
Language
Min Nan Chinese, Mandarin Chinese
Subtitles
ENG
Format
DCP
Part of
Eye Classics
Eye’s collection includes a wealth of classics. With the Eye Classics series, Eye brings film history even closer. Every week, we screen at least three classics from the collection under one recognisable name: Eye Classics.
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