'' A Brighter Summer Day '' is a 1991 Taiwanese drama film directed by Edward Yang and is considered by most to be a masterpiece of contemporary cinema . The film is an extraordinarily large project for a Chinese-language film , not only for its duration of almost four hours , but also for its involvement of more than 100 amateur actors in different roles . The English title is derived from the lyrics of Elvis Presley 's " Are You Lonesome Tonight ? " . The film was selected as the Taiwanese entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 64th Academy Awards but was not nominated
64th Academy Awards
64th Academy Awards
A Brighter Summer Day