A Brighter Summer Day

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A Brighter Summer Day
Directed by	Edward Yang
Written by	Hung Hung Lai Mingtang Alex Yang Edward Yang
Release date(s)	1991
Running time	237 min.
Country	Taiwan
Language	Mandarin Shanghainese Taiwanese
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A Brighter Summer Day (Traditional Chinese: 牯嶺街少年殺人事件) is a nearly four-hour long, 1991 Taiwanese romantic drama film directed by Taiwanese director Edward Yang. The film is an extraordinarily large project for a Chinese-language film, not only for its duration of almost four hours, but also for its involving more than 100 amateur actors in different roles.

The film is based on real incidents that took place in the 1960s, which are placed in the context of the obscure political environment in Taiwan at that time. Political background of the film is introduced in intertitles as:

"Millions of Mainland Chinese fled to Taiwan with the National Government after its civil war defeat by the Chinese Communists in 1949. Their children were brought up in an uneasy atmosphere created by the parents' own uncertainty about the future. Many formed street gangs to search for identity and to strengthen their sense of security."^[1]

Even though the film is extraordinarily long in duration, it received much critical acclaim and now stands as one of the most successful and important Chinese-language films. The film got different awards in Asia Pacific Film Festival, Kinema Junpo Awards and Tokyo International Film Festival.

Zhang Guozhu, Zhang Guozhu's son Chang Chen (which is his film debut) and Elaine Jin are cast in A Brighter Summer Day.