Synopsis
Defying his parents, disaffected youth Hsiao Kang drops out of the local cram school to head for the bright lights of downtown Taipei. He falls in wit Ah Tze, a young hoodlum, and their relationship is a confused mixture of hero-worship and rivalry that soon leads to trouble.
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Cast
- Wang Yu-wenAh Kuei
- Chen Chao-jungAh Tze
- Lee Kang-shengHsiao Kang
- Jen Chang-binAh Ping
- Miao TianHsiao Kang's Father
- Lu Yi-chingHsiao Kang's Mother
Recommendations
- 90
Village Voice
Tsai isn't without mischief — one key to this film's hypnotic power is humor so subtle it's practically subliminal — but his preferred takeaway is the pathos, the still-universal frustration, of an unanswered ringtone. - 88
Slant Magazine
Tsai Ming-liang's debut makes one yearn for an alternative reality where it, not Pulp Fiction, became the beacon of '90s independent filmmaking. - 88
Philadelphia Inquirer
A breathtaking, disturbing look at urban angst and the emptiness of youth culture. - 88
Boston Globe
Despite the self-conscious derivativeness and allusions, Tsai’s debut already demonstrates the contrariness and motifs that have distinguished him as a unique, difficult, and transcendent filmmaker. - 88
Washington Post
Rebels of the Neon God rarely cracks a smile, but it’s as droll as it is disaffected. - 80
Time Out
Tsai’s work sees generational defiance as a symptom of the ennui felt by their young subjects as they drift into adulthood, and Rebels’ unusually sharp focus on that theme makes it an accessible primer for the elements that would inform the more oblique masterpieces to come. - 80
The New York Times
Mr. Tsai typically uses narrative as a tool for exploring the moods and meanings that link his characters with one another and with the city that awakens, contains and frustrates their desires. They seem very much stuck in their world, but because that world is the creation of a wildly original artist coming into his own, it also feels alive with possibility. - 80
Los Angeles Times
As a first film, it is incredibly accomplished, its influences (French New Wave, Wong Kar-Wai) apparent but integrated.
