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Managing editor & film and television critic with a Bachelor's of Arts in English Literature with a Writing Minor from the University of Guam. Currently in graduate school completing a Master's in English Literature.
The fifth short film that I had the delightful opportunity of seeing at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival—and the third one that I will be covering—is utter perfection. Without a doubt, A Brighter Summer Day for the Lady Avengers has brilliant pacing and conveys what it needs to in its twelve-minute runtime. This Taiwanese experimental horror short film is dialogueless. In place of speech’s absence are visual cues, imagery, and appeals to the ears to immerse audiences in the filmmaker’s story.
A Brighter Summer Day (for the Lady Avengers) is written and directed by Birdy Wei-Ting Hung. Kiki Huang serves as the assistant director.
In this review, I will discuss A Brighter Summer Day (for the Lady Avengers). As this article’s title suggests, no spoilers will be present.
Birdy Wei-Ting Hung’s A Brighter Summer Day for the Lady Avengers Synopsis
According to Birdy Wei-Ting Hung, here is the official synopsis for her and Kiki Huang’s experimental horror short film, A Brighter Summer Day for the Lady Avengers, now playing at the Tribeca Film Festival.
A giallo-drenched feminist subversion of Edward Yang’s acclaimed film (A Brighter Summer Day), but this time, the film’s tragic female protagonist gets her bloody revenge at a screening of Deep Red. For the real cinephiles who respect Yang and Dario Argento equally.
Birdy Wei-Ting Hung
Discussion
In Hung’s director’s statement, A Brighter Summer Day is centered on the reclamation of female pleasures. As a response to its censorship in her country during its martial law period, the short reacts to heat with layers of coolness. In fact, for an experimental film, the individual viewer is meant to interpret the narrative based on their observation. Hung does not suggest how to feel throughout the film because pleasure requires finding satisfaction on one’s own. A Brighter Summer Day does that for me—a short that tips the scale that balances reality with reveries.
For one thing, director of photography Ai Chung’s camera work showcases discipline. A whole watermelon is cut open, then into slices, and those slices are placed into a blender. Chung captures close-up shots of the objects and characters to illustrate how space can be occupied. When these take up the frame, they present meaning, and to my understanding, the imagery reinforces the idea that pleasure is an essential part of the natural order of life, despite others arguing otherwise. Music composer Yung Fang Tseng’s scoring and sound designers R.T. Kao and Sammi Lin’s sound editing—of things such as a basketball hitting pavement, the intensity of water droplets, juices flowing down a watermelon—are admirable to extremes.
Art director Yin Chiao Liao’s set pieces are also outstanding, from the juice bar owner’s (Manda Chou) fruit cart at the corner of a perpendicular sidewalk to the movie theater auditorium…and then the girl’s (Wei Huang) reverie of an intimate embrace, an open refrigerator, a brief modeling gig for a beverage brand, and a moment taken from American Psycho, a dark comedy novel adapted into film (co-written and directed) by women.
In a Manner of (Not) Speaking
The title of the Tribeca short film speaks for itself. Hung is acting—or rather, reacting—out of vengeance for the diminishing and dwindling of female pleasure and its depiction in local cinema. For A Brighter Summer Day, the narrative combats the heat with refreshing concepts, e.g., nourishment through watermelon. I admire the implication that the girl embodies the watermelon, a food intended to help keep one’s composure during a harsh time. Even the lucid red theater seats in the auditorium resemble the slices of watermelon, suggesting that watching a movie in a chill room is an escape from the summer atmosphere. The red filtering towards the end of the short film mirrors the imagery of watermelon juice, as if to say that blood via horror equates to a carnal aspect of living. Frankly, that’s an intelligent way of making that point.
The Crew Behind A Brighter Summer Day for the Lady Avengers
Ai Chung serves as the director of photography. Joseph Chun Fu Chang serves as the gaffer.
McKay C. and Hung serve as the editors.
Yun Fang Tseng serves as the music composer.
R.T. Kao and Sammi Lin serve as the sound designers.
Kao also serves as the sound supervisor, the re-recording mixer, and the foley recordist. Lin also serves as the sound editor and the foley artist.
Yin Chiao Liao serves as the art director. Ru Chang serves as the set decorator.
Yulin Fann serves as the costume designer.
Fann also serves as the hair & makeup artist. Ding Sheng Wu serves as the hair & makeup assistant.
The Cast of A Brighter Summer Day for the Lady Avengers
Wei Huang portrays the girl. Yi Chun Chen portrays the boy.
Manda Chou portrays the juice bar owner.
Producer Jay Lee (American Vandal, Looking for Alaska, CSI: Vegas) portrays the theater owner.
Tzu Yun Lo, Yu Ting Ning, Chien Yuan Chen, Sheng Wei Chen, and Shih Pang Cheng are the Tribeca short film’s extras.
Wei Huang’s Character Development and Performance
Wei Huang’s role as the girl is enticing. With only her facial expressions and body language, Birdy Wei-Ting Hung tells the story through her perspective. The girl fantasizes about a boy (Yi Chun Chen), but A Brighter Summer Day isn’t primarily concerned with the boy. The short film is focused on her arousal of him being in her presence and on the places that her mind takes her. My only interpretation of the small scene of the girl modeling is that she exploits the male gaze rather than the male gaze taking advantage of her. This especially makes sense with how the whole narrative reaches its climax.
Final Thoughts on A Brighter Summer Day for the Lady Avengers
Birdy Wei-Ting Hung offers a pristine depiction of women taking back pleasure, what they feel inside, and how they aim to work through inner conflict. It’s psychological, but it’s also a political statement to the Taiwanese government. With all the elements put into it, including the kaleidoscopic end-credits sequence, A Brighter Summer Day is a mesmerizing short film that must be seen solely for its striking yet subtle statement.
5/5 stars
Birdy Wei-Ting Hung and Kiki Huang’s A Brighter Summer Day for the Lady Avengers is now playing at the Tribeca Film Festival!
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Managing editor & film and television critic with a Bachelor's of Arts in English Literature with a Writing Minor from the University of Guam. Currently in graduate school completing a Master's in English Literature.
