Die Spur des Schreckens

There's an interesting visual grammar at work in The Terrorizers, consisting of its approach to framing, movement, and pacing. The film is one of the better demonstrations of how images can serve as the basis of a conceptually rich experience. People and objects, because of how they're framed, because of the moment at which we encounter them and because of the light in which they're cast, evoke an atmosphere. In The Terrorizers, even a normally prosaic, and ignored, thing like, say, a staircase or foyer, is imbued with aching suggestiveness.

After ho-hum reactions to YI YI and BRIGHTER SUMMER DAY, this is the first Yang movie that I liked. The interwoven plot threads slowly reveal themselves in pieces, culminating in a finale that pulls everything together and yet opens up new mysteries. There is some fine cinematography, and the themes of alienation and disconnectedness give you something to chew on. However, I really can only appreciate this on an intellectual level. For me to really love a movie, I have to have some kind of emotional reaction to it. It has to be touching, or amusing, or exciting, or frightening. Like a lot of Antonioni (whose name repeatedly pops up in the reviews of this film), it only left me cold. Only one scene (when the writer weeps in her confused husband's embrace) had any kind of emotional resonance with me. I don't mind a film that makes you think, but there has to be something else to hook me in and encourage me to give it thought. For those who love cinema on a more intellectual level, however, I imagine this would be more rewarding.

When the protagonist's outburst was seen as natural, the cruelty of director Edward Yang was clear at a glance. It is a classic practice to use accidental events to stimulate daily conflicts, and the effect of this film is very effective. The convergent but the wonderful performance from actors matches the realist style of the story. For most of the time the film is in a state of extreme restraint, so the brief empathize in the ending was magnified. As a result, some of the slightly tardy parts of the film can actually be forgiven.

This film is a masterpiece, a telling of the loneliness of the modern world with perfect resonance. It is swift, vital, and brilliant. Along with Taipei Story, Yang has shown in The Terrorizers the pressures of urban life, love, and the ceaselessness of time more artfully than can be expressed in words. Youth and its joys and pains in a modern world have perhaps never been exhibited more skillfully than Yang has done in these two films. I have only found the Taiwanese new wave directors a month ago, but I will highly recommend Edward Yang to anyone who has ever truly felt loneliness or love. Yang is a beautiful director, and this is a beautiful film.

The Terrorizers is not on par with Yang's two most famous films - but it's pretty damn close. Melancholic throughout, all of the loosely connected characters are stricken by Antonioni-like ennui in a modernized, concrete Taipei, reflecting on lives that are heading in unwelcome directions. The ending(s) feel abrupt given the careful build-up, but the style and beauty of Yang's later gems are also displayed here.