Worth: $16.00
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Cast:
Moon Lee, Lin Po-Hung, J.C. Lin, Annie Chen, Ai-Ning Tao, Ning Ding
Intro:
While it plays a little long in its final act, the beauty, dread, and tragedy that resonates at its core are at once affecting, memorable and essential.
As a follow up to his award winning 2018 film Cities of Last Things, director Ho Wi-Ding once again embraces a distinctive fractured storyline with the darkly sublime psychological thriller Terrorizers. But while his previous effort exploited the idea of linear timelines, Terrorizers instead delves into the interconnected lives of young adults, touching on the direct and indirect repercussions of personal choice. The result is an atmospheric tapestry of emotional trauma and character driven drama, underpinned with creeping dread and effective social commentary.
Set in the heart of contemporary Taipei, the film taps into the vulnerability of Taiwanese youth, and their fragility of coping under the weight of impending adulthood. At the film’s core are Yu Fang, a budding actress with abandonment issues, whose desperation for connection forces her moral ambiguity to the surface, and Ming Liang, a brooding young man who struggles with the influence of pornography and violent video games tainting his perceived relationships with those around him.
Sliding between the pair are several support characters whose various interactions eventuate in a shocking act of violence. An act that doesn’t just affect their immediate lives, but which effectively derails the futures each had envisioned for themselves.
Co-writing the script with relative newcomer Natasha Kang-Hsin Sung, a large part of Terrorizers’ effectiveness comes from the superb ensemble cast that Ho Wi-Ding has assembled. Headlined by the ethereal Moon Lee (Detention) and Lin Po-Hung (Transformers: Age of Distinction), the film also includes notable performances from J.C. Lin (Scoundrels) as an optimistic chef who reconnects with Yu Fang after a few years abroad; Annie Chen (More Than Blue) as a close friend of Yu Fang who finds herself exploited into working as cam-girl and who unknowingly becomes an obsession for Ming Liang; Ai-Ning Tao (Because of You) as a teen wannabe cosplayer whose flirtation with Ming Liang is the catalyst for his eventual downfall; and Ning Ding who reunites with her Cities of Last Things director as an alcoholic disenfranchised masseuse.
While the various narrative threads do become slightly convoluted at times, Ho Wi-Ding, who interestingly shares a co-director credit with his wife Chih Hsin Hu on the film, manages to underpin the drama with an authentic domesticity. His handling of the diverse ensemble plays as a pathology of modern youth, with each actor delivering remarkably complex portrayals, both compelling and relatable. It’s a rare artefact of filmmaking where you’re able to sense the trust and collaboration between a cast and its director, with each allowing the other the time and respect to allow the film to truly breathe.
Terrorizers isn’t the perfect film, but it achieves its goal perfectly. While it plays a little long in its final act, the beauty, dread, and tragedy that resonates at its core are at once affecting, memorable and essential.
