In Edward Yang’s film Terrorizers (1986) or The Terrorizers, there’s a repeated motif of characters standing near a window. Gazing out as wind blows through the curtains or sitting on the floor looking up at a closed window, characters exist within interiors that are often framed in master shots. There’s something at once beautiful and unsettling about how Yang and his cinematographer orchestrate the interior space. Set in the city of Taipei, the opening sets up a cityscape with police sirens in the distance and stray gunshots flatly heard. But it’s not a heated crime movie – it’s just something that happens in the background while you put out the washing on your balcony. A raid on an apartment used as a gambling den sets into motion a set of characters who gradually intersect as the narrative continues. Following different narrative threads, this is not a cloying ‘everything is connected’ type of multi-character movie. The intersections are small and have ramifications, but usually it reinforces what the character was already going to do anyway. There’s a married couple who have grown distanced from each other, a doctor (Lee Li-chun) wanting a promotion and a novelist (Cora Miao) with writer’s block. A young photographer (Ma Shao-chun) who darts around taking snaps of what he sees on the street. Then a teenager (Wang An) who is mixed up in shady business. Part of what makes Terrorizers so intriguing is how these characters unfold and what is revealed along the way. Overall, much like the gigantic photo of the teenager blown up to cover a wall, the pieces form a whole, a depiction of urban alienation and capitalism-driven depression. Yang has a deft touch in that these characters are often filled with despair or on the precipice, but the positioning is never judgemental or depressing in itself – the characters are allowed to have their sensitivities and human qualities even if they are ‘terrorising’ others and themselves. It was such an absorbing film viewing experience that I’m still thinking about. Available to watch in a remastered quality version on Mubi; also available on iTunes. Recommended.
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