The Terrorizers (Edward Yang, 1986, Taiwan)

Being a fan of Edward Yang's epic family drama Yi Yi, I had high hopes and certain expectations.  In essence I was expecting a similarly slow and carefully unwinding film, which couldn't be much farther from the truth.

The Terrorizers was released in 1986 during the Taiwanese New Wave movement. Essentially, the cinema of Taiwan was breaking away from traditional and popular Hong Kong styled action films. The Taiwanese New Wave movement focused on more normal, less glamorous everyday life, and began to experiment with non-standard cinematography and the use of several interconnected plots (Magnolia, Babel).

The Terrorizers opens with a shootout in a Taipei neighborhood, within the first 10 minutes we're separately introduced to the major characters of the film as they either react to (the doctor and his author wife), take part in (a delinquent scam artist/thief), or document (a young photographer) the shootout, who are in no way connected to one another of yet  Through its progression each seemingly separate story gradually weaves itself into one another before the conclusion.

The doctor and his wife, together in a deteriorating marriage, are both stress-ridden with their respective careers.  The doctor, Li Zhong, awaiting a promotion to chief of his staff, appears to be both hard-working and loyal, yet turns deceitful and merciful as things don't ideally unfold.  His wife, Yue Fen, abruptly quit her job 3 years ago to focus on being a novelist, and is struggling to piece together her story, loosely based on their married life (unbeknownst to her husband), before her publisher's deadline.

The young delinquent, known only as "White Chick", flees injured from the opening shootout in which she's photographed by unnamed photographer I mentioned before.  During her story she sparks the final straw (which I won't reveal) in the aforementioned married couples' troubled marriage. 

The photographer becomes obsessed with White Chick after photographing her exit from the shootout, going so far as to rent out the very apartment shot up during the shootout that was occupied by the gang involved.  He turns the apartment into a darkroom and develops photographs of White Chick.

Much of the film is depicted in a dream-like state, where most of it flows so evenly and quietly while the cinematography remains soft, at times making it hard to differentiate between what is happening, and what's imagined or dreamt by the characters.

Leaving aside the heavily constructed and linear films of the time, The Terrorizers plays with a more realistic pacing, in which things would happen as if they would in real life.  Following suit, Yang plays with some beautiful and unique shots, like the one pictured below, where White Chick enters the photographs darkroom and gazes upon a wall of photos of herself.  This is one of the very few times I've said 'wow' aloud to myself during a film.

There is one dramatic scene that stands out as one of the strongest in recent memories, and potentially the best I've seen in a Taiwanese film.  As Yue Fen sits at a table with her husband, the camera fixated upon her face; never cutting away or moving. She begins to open up to her husband about why their marriage is failing.  Up until this point in the film she's remained very quiet and soft-spoken, and she begins with the same fragments and whispers here.  As the scene progresses she looks away, begins to cry, grows angry and more powerful with each passing sentence until she's finally and confidently telling her husband off. The actress, Cora Miao went on to receive a nomination for best actress at the Hong Kong Film Awards.

As this was during the beginning of the Taiwanese New Wave era, the film isn't without its flaws.  None of them are glaring or distracting, but certain aspects are experiments that didn't quite work.  Being an early example of a woven plot structure many of the flaws came within the piecing together of the stories, a technique that has been mastered in more recent films.

The Terrorizers is a great example of the Taiwanese New Wave movement from a talented director.  I'd recommend it to anyone interested in Asian cinema.  The film in its entirety is on YouTube, though in poor quality.

B+