REBELS OF THE NEON GOD

Kang is the only son of a cab-driver who thinks he might be the reincarnation of the mischevious god Na Cha. Bored out of his skull by school, he uses his prep-school tuition money to roam around Taipai looking for a good time. After a run-in with a local delinquent who once valdalized his father's cab, Kang is determined to get revenge. But when his father finds out that he squandered his tuition money, he's thrown out of the house. Where will he go from here? REBELS OF THE NEON GOD is Tsai Ming-Liang's first feature, after an exceptionally distinguished career in Taiwanese theatre and TV. No other director since Fassbinder has got inside young male alienation which such tenderness and warmth. Better yet, he does without the usual pages of breast-beating dialogue: this is a piercingly visual film with image after image that will move you to tears. In a remarkable year for Chinese cinema, Tsai's debut strikes me as the finest and most beautiful single achievement. -Tony Rayns, Berlin Film Festival. In Mandarin Chinese with English subtitles.