It's truly a shame that A Brighter Summer isn't better known because it's truly one of the greatest landmarks in modern cinema. It's about a lot of things at once, but Yang beautifully balances everything out. It's as intimate as a love story, but at the same time also as expansive as a historical film. Set in 1960s Taipei, the film is said to be based on a real incident that the director remembers from his school days when he…

I'm not overly familiar with Hou's work so I wasn't sure what to expect. But I love what I just saw. There are a number of sequence shots in the film, and each one is designed in a way that allows the camera to move freely within the designated space and reveal more and more as the scene goes along. Hou has practically built the film around his camerawork. Appropriately so, as this beautiful chamber drama is meant to mirror…