A Brighter Summer Day

A Brighter Summer Day is a 1991 Taiwanese epic teen crime drama film directed by Edward Yang, associated with the New Taiwanese Cinema. Its English title is derived from the lyrics of Elvis Presley's 1960 rendition of "Are You Lonesome Tonight?". Set in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the film centers on Xiao Si’r (Chang Chen), a boy from a middle-class home who veers into juvenile delinquency. The film was selected as the Taiwanese entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 64th Academy Awards but was not nominated. A Brighter Summer Day was ranked 78th in the 2022 Sight & Sound Greatest Films of All Time poll, one of four Chinese-language films to be included and above Yang's Yi Yi. Plot Zhang Zhen (nickname Si'r), a junior high student in 1959 Taipei, is forced to attend night school after failing a test. This upsets his father, a career government worker, who is aware of and worried about the delinquency rampant among night school students. The next morning, Si'r and his father listen to a radio broadcast of distinguished students.