Original poster artwork · Great Cinema Master List
Spoiler-free premise
A boy experiences first love, friendships and injustices growing up in 1960s Taiwan.
Read expanded premiseLonger, still spoiler-free+
In early-1960s Taipei, teenager Si'r attends night school and moves among youth gangs formed by mainland Chinese families. His friendship with Ming, girlfriend of a missing gang leader, unfolds beside family pressure, American pop culture, and escalating neighborhood violence.
Why it belongs
Edward Yang makes one adolescent tragedy a vast social history through deep space, darkness, music, family, and more than a hundred precisely placed characters.
Read expanded why it belongsThe fuller editorial case+
Flashlights, school corridors, radios, tape recorders, Japanese houses, night streets, and Elvis songs map authority and aspiration across generations; Chang Chen's Si'r remains searching inside a world too large for his certainties.
Major award wins
No verified wins in this six-institution crosswalk.
Awards are reference metadata only · zero points in 40/40/20
Good for
Film Club
Descriptive guidance derived from rating, genre, runtime, mood, and GCML scores.
Institutional reference ranks
Sight & Sound78IMDb Top 250—AFI 100—
Reference metadata only · not part of the 40/40/20 score
Great Cinema Master List scores
Greatness9.8
Engagement8.1
Ease5.2
Mandarin · Not Rated Narrative Feature Mood: Tense & Absorbing
