Rebels of the Neon God

A Taiwanese film set in Taipei. Hsiao-kang is preparing for an exam. He goes to a cram school, sits at home, and does not talk. His parents worry about him. His mother goes to a medium; the man says the boy is the incarnation of a god. His father is a taxi driver. He comes home late at night. One day Hsiao-kang leaves the cram school. He withdraws and takes the money back. He sees two young men in the street. Ah-tze and his friend; they steal coins from telephone booths and ride around on a motorbike. Something happens. Ah-tze breaks the mirror on his father's taxi. Hsiao-kang sees it. From there the film is a story of following. The boy starts watching them. He does not say why. He does not speak, does not approach, only goes after them. The city rains constantly. Water blocks the drains, the flats are damp, and nowhere dries. What the narrative is interested in is not crime but emptiness: its idea is that these young people want nothing and that time passes for them entirely without meaning. There is very little speech. The narrative stays silent for long stretches and the scenes are not cut before they end. A hotel room, an arcade, a roller rink and a telephone booth; the settings come round again and again. This is Tsai Ming-liang's first feature and the beginning of his long work with Lee Kang-sheng; the actor carried the same name in later films. The city is the narrative itself. Taipei at night, its signage and its back streets, is nearly a character. Lee Kang-sheng, Chen Chao-jung, Wang Yu-wen and Jen Chang-bin are in the cast. Who it is for: anyone who likes slow cinema and the 1990s Taiwanese new wave. Who it is not for: anyone looking for narrative; the film tells no story and most of its incidents lead nowhere.