Edward Yang’s A Brighter Summer Day Character Analysis and Character Relationship Map Translation 牯嶺街少年殺 人事件 校色圖片

This is not a character analysis, but rather to help you differentiate between all the characters with similar haircuts – notable SLY, DEUCE, LAO’ER, and THREADS. Also we have characters mentioned a lot but never actually seen nor relevant to the plot. This wikipage is helpful: https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%89%AF%E5%B6%BA%E8%A1%97%E5%B0%91%E5%B9%B4%E6%AE%BA%E4%BA%BA%E4%BA%8B%E4%BB%B6

Jump to the end for my translation of dialogue between Xiao Si’R and Ming that ultimately dooms Ming. I watched the Criterion Collection remaster of this 1991 film.

Xiao Si’R 張舉

THREADS (nice grey suit/slicked hair)

• Tries to profit off the concert hall
• Introduces Lao’Er into pool gambling at the 217 stronghold

SLY (leader who overtook Little Park in Honey’s absence)

• rebels against Honey/ Little Park
• is the manager’s son of the concert hall and thus SHANDONG tries to create a partnership with him via THREADS.
• At the 45 minute mark we see him cordial with JADE.

OTHER CHARACTERS

Cat (Short, Americanized Elvis Presley fan who sings)

• Nickname “Cat” is because Elvis Presley’s name is “Cat King” in Mandarin, si it implies he is mini-Elvis.

Airplane (friend of Cat and Si’Er, otherwise a peripheral character)

• Pictured on the viewer’s left, sitting in front of Cat.

DEUCE (James Dean looking with a white shirt in casual dress, somewhat tall, lead singer in the first concert scene)

• Honey’s brother
• Start the original concert idea with THREADS, which has become profitable, however SLY (and then SHANDONG) want a cut of the profits.
• At the 45 minute mark, goes to pick a fight with SLY for overtaking his profits (since SLY’s father runs the auditorium) https://youtu.be/0kMR6hlAvlk?t=2687

Tiger (Tall and skinny, Basketball player, has a one-sided crush/flirts with Ming)

• Seen in the third row starting from the bottom, right above Cat.

Lao’Er (Tall, slight pompadour)

• Second son/brother of Si’R
• At the 28 minute mark, we can see he is interested in pool, which leads him to Threads.
• Seen in the dinner photo behind the grey suit Mr. Wang.
• Stoic/expressionless.

SHANDONG (buzzcut), LEADER OF GANG 217

• hangs out at the pool hall
• wears his shirt openly instead of buttoned up

Shandong’s Girlfriend = Crazy 小神經

• Good at pool, acts as a sort of sisterly figure to Ming.

HONEY (wears a Navy suit, hard to miss)

Horsecart (official gang member, connected with HONEY)

Shopkeeper Wang (BenShengRen Taiwanese)

MA (Son of a well known general named Ma)

JADE 小翠 (cui4)

MING‘S RELATIONSHIPS

A BRIGHTER SUMMER DAY 1991 FILM DIALOGUE TRANSLATION REVIEW

A pivotal moment that doomed Ming was at the 3 hour mark when both Ming and Xiao Si’r are on the side of the road to let tanks go by. There’s a miss in the translation so I’ll put it here on my translation blog. XIAO SI’ER’s despair is deepened by JADE ‘s conversation/date at the 3 hour 31 minute mark, also shallowly translated.

The dialogue:

M: 很多人都想追我

Lots of people are interested in me/have a crush on me. （很多人都想追我 – Is officially translated in English as “many people have ideas about me” when it should be “many people have a crush on me”. The following lines “Can’t you tell [they are interested in me]” further cements Ming as a promiscuous lady who flirts back with many men including the younger doctor at her school. And she is aware of it too.）

M: 你不是也聼很多嗎？【。。。】

Haven’t you heard the rumors as well?

M: 你看不出來嗎？

Can’t you tell [they are interested in me]?

XS： 你不能不利他嗎？

Can’t you just ignore them? (asking Ming to stop returning their advances)

M: 你不能叫每個人像你一樣都*扶著自認(?)*

[To Xiao Si’Er] You can’t ask everyone to be as *responsible and morally upright* as you. (I couldn’t hear the words clearly. I think it is 扶著 = take responsibility in moral way. 自人 is likely the next phrase, which means oneself – put together it means aka to be self-policing/morally righteous. Basically Ming is rejecting Si’Er’s worldview in favour of her current murky relations, which is cemented in the next sentence:

XSR: 妳這樣會被人瞧不起。

If you’re like this, people will look down on you in contempt。

M: 你是説，你瞧不起我。

You mean, you’ll look down at me.

（Holy smokes! Ming cuts through Xiao Si’Er’s BS and know exactly what he’s trying to say. At this point, Xiao S’ir still thinks he has a chance to save and redeem Ming, just like his hope in returning to the good and socially accepted day school, but as we’ll see in the ending scene — well, watch it yourself. )

Xiao Si’Ir’s conversation with JADE 小翠

Note: he’s been induced by SLY to think MING is having an affair with MA, after MA fooled around with JADE, so there’s this hope that Jade and him are alike (cast aside by their lovers).

The first bit is about how SLY has changed, which gave XSR a sense of hope.

XSR： 小翠, 我們可以好好的在一起嗎？

Jade, do you think we could be happy together? (Inferring he wants something official, not just murky dates).

我也許可以給你一種安慰的感覺。

Maybe I could give you a sense of security.

你是不是也有這種感覺？

Don’t you also feel the same [lack of security]?

JADE： 你很認真， 你自前不是瞧不起我？

You’re so serious, didn’t you look down on me before? [..]

(As we know, Jade re-asserts she is happy and this is her authentic self, something Xiao Si’ir, in his restrictive family life, cannot accept. )

Additional Sources and Reviews

https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/3981-a-brighter-summer-day-coming-of-age-in-taipei