A complete departure from Yang’s previous works, A Bright Summer Day has nothing to do with the modern times, but through a juvenile murder case in the 1960s to reflect on the suppression, disorientation and loss of innocence when Taiwan was still an enclosed society. This loss encompasses the disappointment of young murderer on his girlfriend’s reliance on a powerful male, the disintegration of gang fraternity, a totalitarian educational system, and the sinister police judicial system; murder becomes symbolic of the failure of unadulterated idealism in reality. Yang has also changed his style in accordance with the change of subject, besides the 60s setting, light and shadow has become an insignia of his strong empathy with the protagonist. This work has always been mentioned along with HOU Hsiao-Hsien’s A City of Sadness (1989). (WEN Tien-Hsiang)