{"id":6677,"date":"2024-10-25T12:03:44","date_gmt":"2024-10-25T16:03:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=6677"},"modified":"2024-10-25T12:03:44","modified_gmt":"2024-10-25T16:03:44","slug":"rebels-of-the-neon-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/10\/25\/rebels-of-the-neon-god\/","title":{"rendered":"Rebels of the Neon God"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Rebels of the Neon God<\/strong> (1992)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Big World Pictures\/Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 106 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 No MPAA Rating (language, some violence, some sexual content)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Tsai Ming-liang\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Tsai Ming-liang\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Huang Shu-Jun\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Pen-jung Liao\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: July 3, 2015 (Philadelphia, PA)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Lee Kang-sheng, Chen Chao-jung, Jen Chang-bin, Wang Yu-Wen, Miao Tien, Lu Yi-Ching.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Spoken in Mandarin w\/English subtitles<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: *** \u00bd<\/p>\n

First of all, I love this movie\u2019s title. Rebels of the Neon God<\/strong>, it just sounds cool, don\u2019t you think? That being said, I now have a rhetorical question. How have I not heard of Tsai Ming-liang? He\u2019s regarded by critics as one of the finest filmmakers in the world. He has several titles to his credit including Vive L\u2019Amour, The River and Stray Dogs yet I\u2019ve not seen a single one of his movies which brings me back to Rebels of the Neon God<\/strong>, finally being released in the US twenty-three years after its debut. The trailer caught my attention with its vivid colors and an electric bass line score that evokes John Carpenter. The same piece of music appears at various times throughout the movie, but never feels redundant because it fits the mood so perfectly.<\/p>\n

Rebels of the Neon God<\/strong> is an unusual film because it doesn\u2019t have a plot, at least not in the usual sense. Nothing really HAPPENS per se. It centers on a group of disparate, disillusioned youths living in Taipei. Tsai\u2019s film follows them over the course of a few days and nights. Sometimes they find themselves in the same place at the same time. But if asked what Rebels of the Neon God<\/strong> is ABOUT, I\u2019d say it\u2019s about urban angst, the emptiness of youth culture and the psychic toll of living in a big city.<\/p>\n

If I had to call anybody the main character, it would be Hsiao-kang (Lee), a character who appears in several of Tsai\u2019s films. In Rebels of the Neon God<\/strong>, his first appearance, he\u2019s a cram school student living with his parents. His father (Miao) drives a taxi and barely tolerates his son. His mother (Lu) is an overprotective sort who believes he\u2019s the reincarnation of Nezha, a powerful god in Chinese mythology. Hsiao-kang is something of a social misfit. He doesn\u2019t feel like he fits in anywhere. He has no friends and doesn\u2019t speak to anybody. Unhappy and impulsive, he\u2019s the sort one expects to go on a shooting spree at school.<\/p>\n

One day, his father\u2019s taxi is vandalized by Ah Tze (Chen), a petty criminal we first meet in a phone booth (remember those?) breaking into the coin box with his partner-in-crime Ah Bing (Jen). He\u2019s in a relationship with Ah Kuei (Wang), a girl who works at the local roller rink. He doesn\u2019t treat her particularly well. When Hsiao-kang spots Ah Tze later on, he decides to follow and watch him from a distance. He\u2019s right there when Ah Tze and Ah Bing steal consoles from a video arcade (remember those?). He finally gets an opportunity to retaliate for the earlier act of vandalism with an equally arbitrary action.<\/p>\n

The thing about Hsiao-kang is that he doesn\u2019t really know why he does the things he does. For example, he drops out of school and pockets the reimbursed tuition money. He then stays out all night, not once letting his parents know what\u2019s going on. He\u2019s a very troubled young man with a definite undercurrent of violence. This is made evident when we first meet him studying in his bedroom. He tortures a cockroach with the point of his compass before putting his hand through the window.<\/p>\n

Lee turns in an excellent performance as Hsiao-kang. In fact, all of the acting in Rebels of the Neon God<\/strong> is quite good. But the real star of the film is the visual imagery. It can definitely be described as poetic. It looks like a noir piece with the neon-splashed nighttime scenes as the characters hang out in arcades, diners, alleys and dirty hotel rooms. By day, they ride aimlessly on scooters with blank expressions. Water is a recurring motif in Rebels of the Neon God<\/strong> whether it\u2019s a drenching rainstorm or Ah Tze\u2019s constantly flooded apartment. Tsai makes great use of long takes that express the characters\u2019 longing and sadness. In one scene, he tracks a series of objects (slipper, soda can and cigarette butt) floating in the floorwater in Ah Tze\u2019s apartment.<\/p>\n

Even though the movie lacks any real action (except for Ah Tze and his partner running afoul of some dangerous criminal types), it still brims with sheer energy thanks to Tsai\u2019s brilliant visual sense. There\u2019s a deep undercurrent of emotional tension and violence, but never any sort of catharsis or release. There is no final confrontation between Hsiao-kang and Ah Tze. Nothing is really resolved which is precisely the idea behind Rebels of the Neon God<\/strong>. Tsai sets out to reflect real life and as we know, real life bears little if any resemblance to movies. Granted, it\u2019s something of an impressionistic view of real life, but how better to emphasize the ennui and loneliness of urban living.<\/p>\n

In its own way, Rebels of the Neon God<\/strong> is a heartbreaking film. It illustrates the idea of how it\u2019s possible to feel all alone amidst a crowd. The characters cross paths, but never actually connect. This is the kind of movie that demands more than one viewing in order to fully absorb its visual poetry and underlying ideas. The score, as I said, is a definite asset. It\u2019s an impressive film and I\u2019m happy that American audiences will finally get to experience it.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rebels of the Neon God (1992)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Big World Pictures\/Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 106 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 No MPAA Rating (language, some violence, some sexual content)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Tsai Ming-liang\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Tsai Ming-liang\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Huang Shu-Jun\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Pen-jung Liao\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: July 3, 2015 (Philadelphia, PA)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Lee Kang-sheng, Chen Chao-jung, Jen Chang-bin, Wang Yu-Wen, Miao Tien, Lu Yi-Ching.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Spoken in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7400,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dramas","category-foreign"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Rebels-of-the-Neon-God-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6677"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7402,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6677\/revisions\/7402"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}