Rebels of the Neon God

This is the iconic debut film of Tsai Ming-liang, one of the most original and uncompromising filmmakers of the 1990s, and one of the directors who helped put Taiwan on the world map of cinema.

Rebels of the Neon God, the first film in the trilogy that continues with Vive l’amour and The River, is equipped with most of the themes and motifs that we find in his later films. We have the tension between a rootless, small-time criminal urban life and Taiwanese traditions and superstitions (the protagonist's mother suspects that her son is a reincarnation of a god). We have the water symbolism, as one of the characters gets their apartment flooded. We have the search for sexual identity, often with a homosexual emphasis – in this film, the protagonist becomes infatuated with a slightly older boy. We have the naturalistic acting and the sparse dialogue. And last but not least, this is Lee Kang-sheng's debut film. Tsai discovered him himself, and it’s no small feat what the tormented, awkward, but highly sympathetic Lee goes through as the lead actor in Tsai's films.

«Tsai Ming-liang’s debut makes one yearn for an alternative reality where it, not Pulp Fiction, became the beacon of ’90s independent filmmaking.»

– Clayton Dillard, Slant Magazine –

Cinemateket in Oslo

Director

Tsai Ming-liang (f. 1957) er en malaysisk filmskaper basert i Taiwan. Han har regissert flere viktige filmer i taiwanesisk filmhistorie. Rebels of the Neon God (1992) er hans første spillefilm.

This film is part of