Rebels of the Neon God

Hsiao Kang defies his parents and leaves school for the neon-lit heart of Taipei. A revolutionary film that permanently transformed Taiwanese cinema, it follows several young people dividing their time between computer arcades and bars - in their nocturnal wanderings they form fleeting or dysfunctional relationships and gradually lose the ability to communicate with their parents.

In his directorial debut, Tsai Ming-liang employs a more dynamic editing style and richer dialogue, yet the stylistic constants of his future work are already present: a traditional sense of composition shared with his regular cinematographer Liao Pen-jung, and a distinctive sound design that blurs the boundary between foreground action and atmospheric sound layers.

"I think it's best to start with an apparent contrast: intense emotion and deliberate calculation are commonly perceived as opposing forces, and outside of art they usually are. Perhaps most accurately, one could say that Tsai in his directorial debut found an aesthetic that matched his feelings, and feelings that matched his aesthetic." - Mike Archibald