A Brighter Summer Day

A Brighter Summer Day
Theatrical poster
Traditional Chinese牯嶺街少年殺人事件
Simplified Chinese牯岭街少年杀人事件
Literal meaningYouth Homicide Incident on Guling Street
Hanyu PinyinGǔlǐng jiē shàonián shārén shìjiàn
Directed byEdward Yang
Screenplay byHung Hung
Lai Ming-tang
Edward Yang
Alex Yang
Yan Hong-ya
Produced byYu Wei-yen
Chan Hung-tze [zh]
Edward Yang
StarringChang Chen
Lisa Yang
Chang Kuo-Chu
Elaine Jin
Wang Chuan
Chang Han
CinematographyChang Hui-kung
Li Long-yu
Edited byBowen Chen
Production
companies
Yang & His Gang Filmmakers
Jane Balfour Films
Distributed byCine Qua Non Films
Release date
  • July 27, 1991 (1991-07-27)
Running time
237 minutes
CountryTaiwan
LanguagesMandarin
Shanghainese
Taiwanese

A Brighter Summer Day is a 1991 Taiwanese epic[1] teen crime drama film directed by Edward Yang, associated with the New Taiwanese Cinema. Its English title is derived from the lyrics of Elvis Presley's 1960 rendition of "Are You Lonesome Tonight?". Set in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the film centers on Hsiao Si’r (Chang Chen), a boy from a middle-class home who veers into juvenile delinquency.

The film was selected as the Taiwanese entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 64th Academy Awards but was not nominated.[2]

Since its release, A Brighter Summer Day has been praised as one of Yang's best works, one of the best films of the 1990s, and one of the greatest films of all time. It ranked 78th in the 2022 Sight & Sound Greatest Films of All Time poll, one of four Chinese-language films to be included, and above Yang's Yi Yi.[3]

  1. ^ "A Brighter Summer Day". The Criterion Collection. Retrieved September 5, 2020.
  2. ^ Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
  3. ^ "The Greatest Films of All Time".