Elliott Shr-tzung Shie

Abstract

Due to its inconvenient access, Edward Yang’s masterpiece A Brighter Summer Day, for the past twenty five years, has ellicited very few research articles. To make a contribution to this premature scholarship, this article focuses on the subject matter of the film and employes the method of narratology to argue that through the devices of similarity and contrast, Yang presents an ambitious moral tragedy on the cinematic stage where the heros attempt to realize their moral ideals even at the cost of their inclinations, self-interests and lives. Viewing the film as Yang’s historical reflection on the 1960s, the article then unravel the ways by which the state apparatuse interpellates some individuals into moral subjects and explicate why these moral idealists are doomed to confront and conflict with the millieu.

Keywords: narratology, Edward Yang, A Brighter Summer Day, tragedy, moral idealists