Kong bu fen zi / The Terrorizers

“The bombs we plant in each other are ticking away.” Edward Yang

Edward Yang focuses on the lives of six different people whose destinies intertwine on the streets of 1980s Taipei.Their relentless efforts to be happy and to make each other happy fail. The film became famous not only for its fascinating editing style but also for its innovative genre blend of social drama and crime film—police officers race through the streets of the metropolis in their cars as helpless witnesses to social conflicts.

“The shots of a slight breeze ruffling curtains or of rainwater dribbling into a golden puddle are rare interruptions in the otherwise gray, postmodern city the same way they were for Antonioni’s Rome in L’Eclisse. Like the use of temps mort, these moments express the importance of valuing what lies in the space between individuals, between the story’s action, in order to better understand how urban alienation occurs. However, by so brazenly recapitulating Antonioni’s techniques, Yang is not only engaging in the pastiche of postmodernism, but also conveying how Antonioni’s lessons have not been learned. The acceleration of technology and therefore culture has only amplified these concerns in the hyperglobalized city. The Terrorizers, like its modernist spiritual predecessor, Blow-Up, dramatizes the ways in which urban space facilitates life-altering chance encounters. While Antonioni’s photographer is forced to question the utility of his medium and the veracity of constructed narratives, he ultimately learns to accept not knowing, exemplified in his participation in a mime troupe’s imaginary tennis game. Yang’s post-modern film, however, does not permit the same type of revelation. In the new, hyper-connected space of Taipei, personal trauma is a phone call away and can occur without explanation or subsequent revelation. Yang offers no solution, instead only reminding us once again, “The bombs we plant in each other are ticking away.”

Jimmy Weaver

The film was preserved by the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute. ©2010 Fortune Star Media Limited. All Rights Reserved.

“The bombs we plant in each other are ticking away.” Edward Yang

The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Arthur Chu, chairman of the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute (TFAI).

Edward Yang focuses on the lives of six different people whose destinies intertwine on the streets of 1980s Taipei.Their relentless efforts to be happy and to make each other happy fail. The film became famous not only for its fascinating editing style but also for its innovative genre blend of social drama and crime film—police officers race through the streets of the metropolis in their cars as helpless witnesses to social conflicts.

“The shots of a slight breeze ruffling curtains or of rainwater dribbling into a golden puddle are rare interruptions in the otherwise gray, postmodern city the same way they were for Antonioni’s Rome in L’Eclisse. Like the use of temps mort, these moments express the importance of valuing what lies in the space between individuals, between the story’s action, in order to better understand how urban alienation occurs. However, by so brazenly recapitulating Antonioni’s techniques, Yang is not only engaging in the pastiche of postmodernism, but also conveying how Antonioni’s lessons have not been learned. The acceleration of technology and therefore culture has only amplified these concerns in the hyperglobalized city. The Terrorizers, like its modernist spiritual predecessor, Blow-Up, dramatizes the ways in which urban space facilitates life-altering chance encounters. While Antonioni’s photographer is forced to question the utility of his medium and the veracity of constructed narratives, he ultimately learns to accept not knowing, exemplified in his participation in a mime troupe’s imaginary tennis game. Yang’s post-modern film, however, does not permit the same type of revelation. In the new, hyper-connected space of Taipei, personal trauma is a phone call away and can occur without explanation or subsequent revelation. Yang offers no solution, instead only reminding us once again, “The bombs we plant in each other are ticking away.”

Jimmy Weaver

The film was preserved by the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute. ©2010 Fortune Star Media Limited. All Rights Reserved.