A Brighter Summer Day

Saturday I was feeling despondent. I had had a conversation with Cherry the night before about film and publishing and the dreck that gets produced or published and awarded. I had to stop myself and laugh. I told Cherry I should probably create some great work of art before lamenting what others were doing. At brunch, Eric said I didn't. That people can judge based on their own tastes without having to have created something that reflected their ideals. He said it in so many words.

After lunch we went to MoMA to see Edward Yang's A Brighter Summer Day. It's a film about the tensions inherent in Taiwanese society in the 60s, after the Nationalists had come to the island, the memory of the Japanese occupation still fresh in people's minds. The film follows a good student as he tries to navigate his world surrounded by street gangs. His parents are good people, but struggling to raise their children; their difficulties are compounded by the uncertainty of their own future, having emigrated from the mainland. Yang based some of the film on his own experiences, having been born in Shanghai and brought up in Taipei, and also on the true story of the first juvenille homocide case in Taiwain. It's an epic film, unspooling at just under four hours, and a depressing one that trains its eye on the complex social issues of that particularly transitional time in Taiwan's history.

Afterwards, I didn't know what to say. We decided to eat menchanko at a midtown noodle shop and left our minds to themselves to try and process what we had just seen. Sated, we parted ways. Eric had to meet Sonia in Astoria for a housewarming party, and I had told Teru I'd meet him at the slideluck potshow on the west side. I walked over.

Just outside, I met a German photographer and his girlfriend. The space was huge and we grabbed drinks and snacks and chatted on the terrace. A breeze blew in from the river. His girlfriend worked as a curator for a private individual. She said it was surreal being in that world. Where her employer acquired works at Sotheby's, used personal shoppers for her clothing, and butlers roamed the halls.

Teru and Adam came in as the slideshows were about to get under way. A man got up and began to lecture. We couldn't tell if he were serious or if it was performance art. Teru thought he might be serious. We wandered back out to the terrace to await the true start of the show and we ran into a bunch of people I knew but had never met from Lightstalkers.

On the way home my mind drifted back to the film. I replayed scenes and emotions. At home I tried to watch an episode of 24 but it suddenly seemed too artificial and so I went to bed. Posted by eku at June 27, 2005 11:11 AM