EAST 350 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Edward Yang, Taiwanese Identity, Pathological Lying
15 May 2018
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Lecture 10
March 20, 2018
10:03 AM
Group Presentation:
The Terrorizers
Overarching Focus: Taiwanese identity and sociopolitics during the 1980s and
Edad Yags itepetatio of it usig a ast of dispesed haates ad post-
modernist cinematics.
The fils title is aiguous due to its laguage of oigi. It leaes the ue of
terrorizers and their identities up to the interpretation of the viewer. The
constant creation of terror and unrest that appears throughout the movie alludes
to the atosphee of Taiaese soiety duig the tie of the fils elease.
Throughout the film, Edward Yang repeatedly employs the use of still shots to
recount the storyline. This creates an aspect of slowness while simultaneously
making a parallel to the photography thematic of the movie. The still shots
prevent the viewer from knowing exactly what happens behind the camera, as
Yang forces the viewer to ponder on immobile objects while portions of the plot
are hinted yet not shown. Because of this, the interpretation of the plot is very
subjective. However, Yang offers specific scenes to further the understanding of
the plot, ad guide the iee aog the aious haates stoylies ad thei
convergence towards the ending. Finally, the plot unravels unto two contrasting
endings, which can be interpreted freely by the viewer.
The film The Terrorizers explores the idea of fiction versus reality within itself as a
fictitious film. Through the artistic mediums present in the film, we get an
ostensibly modernistic theme: life imitates art, rather than the other way around.
The characters that play into this are the writer, the photographer and to an
extent, White Chick who is a mythomania. Over the course of the film, we come
to realize that White Chick creates fiction, one of which becomes reality, the
photographer captures reality and the writer creates fiction that becomes reality.
There were unique sound techniques within the film through the use of repetition
of the sounds such as camera shutter clicking, dogs barking, water dripping, guns
shooting and the sirens blaring. This repetition sheds light on the topic of time
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Document Summary
Overarching focus: taiwanese identity and sociopolitics during the 1980s and. Ed(cid:449)a(cid:396)d ya(cid:374)g(cid:859)s i(cid:374)te(cid:396)p(cid:396)etatio(cid:374) of it usi(cid:374)g a (cid:272)ast of dispe(cid:396)sed (cid:272)ha(cid:396)a(cid:272)te(cid:396)s a(cid:374)d post- modernist cinematics. The fil(cid:373)(cid:859)s title is a(cid:373)(cid:271)iguous due to its la(cid:374)guage of o(cid:396)igi(cid:374). It lea(cid:448)es the (cid:374)u(cid:373)(cid:271)e(cid:396) of terrorizers and their identities up to the interpretation of the viewer. The constant creation of terror and unrest that appears throughout the movie alludes to the at(cid:373)osphe(cid:396)e of tai(cid:449)a(cid:374)ese so(cid:272)iety du(cid:396)i(cid:374)g the ti(cid:373)e of the fil(cid:373)(cid:859)s (cid:396)elease. Throughout the film, edward yang repeatedly employs the use of still shots to recount the storyline. This creates an aspect of slowness while simultaneously making a parallel to the photography thematic of the movie. The still shots prevent the viewer from knowing exactly what happens behind the camera, as. Yang forces the viewer to ponder on immobile objects while portions of the plot are hinted yet not shown. Because of this, the interpretation of the plot is very subjective.
