Edward Yang - Kong bu fen zi (恐怖份子) ('The Terrorizers') (1986)

Terrorizer, released in 1986, continues along the path laid out by Taipei Story. Yang, never one to back away from a complex narrative, structures the plot around six primary characters, whose lives are gradually revealed as dramatically intertwined. An upper-class young photographer and his girlfriend, a female criminal known as the White Chick; Chou and Li, a married couple on the outs; and the woman's magazine editor boyfriend form the primary nodes of this unit. Again, however, Yang is most intrigued by the dynamics of the romantic relationship, and specifically the failing relationship. The married couple both pursue success in separate fields, he as a doctor, she as an aspiring writer. Their relationship is defined by sacrifice-her attempts to tailor her dreams as a writer to fit the necessities of marriage, and his anguish at being unable to make her happy. Yang reveals the underlying tension between traditional and modern ideas of female roles, and then stretches it to the breaking point, when Chou leaves her husband. The almost-unbearable bittersweetness of Li's carefully closing Chou's suitcase and handing it to her, and then standing by the window and watching her as she leaves, is complicated by the fact that neither of these characters, nor any other in Terrorizer, is particularly likable. Senses of Cinema




Just as Antonioni uses dislocation as a means of conveying alienation, Yang chooses to use absentation–the absence of things–as a thematic device. Throughout the narrative one is reminded of the absence of fathers–both socially and politically. It is the absence of leadership. Elsewhere, absentation is employed when the photographer decides to turn an apartment into one huge darkroom which denies him the reality of time while permitting him to create a world of his own. At one point, a teenage girl whom he temporarily harbors asked him if it is day or night. When the camera finally peeps outside the apartment Yang gives us neither day nor night but that brief moment in time when light gives way to darkness or darkness breaks into light. It is here that Yang best captures the logic of that dream world: his protagonists are merely phantoms suspended in time. It is the absence of time. Throughout the narrative one is sometimes puzzled by the seemingly lack of explanations: the initial breakup of the photographer and his girlfriend (witnessed over the soundtrack of "Smoke Gets in Your Eye"); the return of the photographer's stolen cameras; the breakup of the married couple; the status of the policeman with no emotional or physical ties. It is the absence of elucidation. Unlike the works of Antonioni where there is always a central character whose viewpoint mirrors our own, functioning as a filter of reality, Yang denies us of such privilege. The impossibility of identifying with any character may be disorientating but it also serves as a metaphor of a city that has lost its moral compass. It is the absence of a central viewpoint. Absentation is clearly an effective tool in exploring the void that lies at the heart of modern culture–it is the black hole of the human condition. imdb user comment - THE DREAM CITY THAT EDWARD YANG BUILT