Rebels of the Neon God

Ming-liang Tsai's Rebels of the Neon God follows a well-established trend of focusing on the youth in a modern society. A society that seems boring and isolating among a plethora of distractions appearing much more interesting. This lack of interest in following tradition but instead pursuing their own path leading two different ends of the spectrum being met: on one side you have the ambitious, the prepared. On another side you have the lost, the wandering youth that goes by any means necessary in order to get by.

Rebels of the Neon God shows these two sides of the spectrum converging paths as a result of the feeling of immense isolation and fear. How a sense of belonging is so important to them yet so vacant in their lives that their very lives are seemingly meaningless. Very little of these elements are visible on screen, but I believe this is what makes the film's narrative so impactful: these wandering youth are simply invisible to the average person. They roam the night, they steal to get by, their lives are filled with distractions that take up their time but keep them tucked away from the rest of society.

Today, this is more true than ever before. Where the pandemic has led to record levels of anxiety, depression, and isolation which has wrongfully been accepted and even encouraged.

The concept of a 'Neon God' is briefly mentioned in the film, but it holds some significance in displaying the rejection of tradition in the youth, where the older maintain values of spirituality and superstition; one protagonist's mother begins to believe that their troubled son is the reincarnation of the 'Neon God' due to his eradtic behaviour and a family name. This is quickly mocked by the teenager who instantly rejects what they believe is nothing but idiocy.

One can make the assumption that there may indeed be a Neon God, but one that is more metaphorical: the connection to the city's unyielding neon glow in the dead of the night, where there is always something taking place somewhere. The city itself could very well be the Neon God, controlling and punishing its people with the difficulties of modern life under its neon glow.

This Neon God sending its people in lives of corruption and theft as they roam its streets, dimly lit by its glowing neon in search of belonging. Instead, they find gambling and underground crime syndicates.

Two of our protagonists are friends that roam the night in search for money. They steal from payphones, other stores, and ultimately find money in any possible way they can. In the dead of the night, they simply gamble it away or spend it playing videogames at the arcade. They have no interest in pursuing a normal life. For them, this is all life can offer. They're selfish, and take no interest in who they are stealing from or hurting. This is evident from a brief scene where our 'Neon God' and the two teenagers collide. Leading to the two teenagers damaging his father's taxi as the two speed off.

Revenge quickly becomes the focus of the 'Neon God', who purchases a small BB gun, but also begins to stalk to the two teenagers. He goes to school, of which he has little interest in attending, and requests a refund. For our 'Neon God', he has no interest in the pursuit of crime, but is simply lost in life. He has no sense of direction, and is fueled by anger. This leads to a story of regret, crime, and loneliness. Where the youth feel forced into these actions as a result of a lack of true guidance.

We follow their daily lives, as the characters unknowingly connect. We see a firsthand experience of how their actions have impacts on the lives of others, and how revenge -- or some would even consider it to be karma -- eventually finds them. There's no surprise that this is the eventual outcome, it appears inevitable. But an easy lesson to the viewer that our youth are often thrown into similar circumstances and that something should be done to avoid this outcome. The narrative showing that these people aren't actually bad, but lost. They feel the same emotions as those they're hurting, without knowing it directly until much later.

For our characters, money actually holds very little interest to them. Despite the constant theft, they're only really interested in getting by and then spending their money each night again gambling in slot machines or playing videogames. They aren't deep criminals that are truly in it for the money or evils, simply just attempting to get by doing the few things they enjoy that keep them imprisoned in this lost lifestyle.

Much like the films' title, our characters are simply rebels of the neon city that they inhabit. Rejecting its rules and structure and instead doing what they please.

It didn't take long for the film's beautiful 35mm film style to display its beauty. The dark tones of the city, the grain which adds a gritty, otherwordly look to the colours. These heavily amplified what is some very simple, yet creative directing.

At times the camera pursues a distanced perspective, often from across the street or from the main road. We get the perspective of there being an observer, sometimes even an additional character that sees all and is part of the action. There's times where the camera follows the characters in their actions before settling down in some very beautiful perspective that displays the narrow streets, or the seemingly claustrophobic nature of hotel rooms.

Interestingly, this holds some connection to the film's much earlier strange obsession with cockroaches. These insects lurking in the dark, running quickly from one place to another in attempt to not be seen or caught. The blatant symbolism showing that our characters are not much different in their daily lives.

This style of directing, outside of some simple symbolism, is unique and almost a piece of its time. A part of asian cinema that is no longer, where the focus is on people and the concept of a fast-growing society heavily impacting them. That these stories of a few individuals are far from a rarity in a city so dense. I had reflections of Wong Kar-wai's Hong Kong works from the 90's with Christopher Doyle, which had a very similar style of displaying regular people which often thrive in the night under the neon.

I certainly feel that the use of 35mm film amplified the creative angles and cinematography of the film. Where the colours feel much warmer, the colours of red and yellow standing out quite a lot in the darker tones that roll into shadows of grey and black. It pains me that the use of 35mm film is a rarity these days, seeing how beautiful the films of asian cinema of the past utilised it to perfection.