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DIGITAL

Opening Date

07 Nov 2024

Rating

M18 Some Mature Content

Runtime

106 mins

Language

Mandarin with English & Chinese subtitles

Genre

Drama, Thriller

Director

Nelicia Low

Cast

Liu Hsiu-Fu, Tsao Yu-Ning, Ding Ning

Synopsis

Zijie is a young fencer longing to reconnect with his estranged older
brother Zihan, who mysteriously returns after seven years in juvenile
prison for killing an opponent during a fencing match. Zijie believes
Zihan’s insistence that he is innocent and secretly decides to help him,
defying their mother’s efforts to erase Zihan from their lives. In return,
Zihan starts to train Zijie in fencing and Zijie improves immensely,
getting selected to compete at the upcoming National Championships.

As the brothers grow closer, their mother finds out that they have re-
united and is furious at Zijie, yet Zijie stubbornly sticks by his brother.

But Zihan’s hostile past is triggered after an argument, leaving Zijie
to finally question whether his beloved brother might be a violent
sociopath after all.

Reviews

By InCinemas 04 Nov 2024

A moving and intriguing story of unconditional love between family.

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Pierce, a psycho-drama set in Taipei is written and directed by Nelica Low, and is a co-production between Singapore, Taiwan and Poland which had its world premier in the Crystal Globe Competition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival where Nelicia won the Best Director Award.

Part of the cast of Pierce are Golden Horse Award winners - Ding Ning (Cities of Last Things) and Tsao Yu-Ning (KANO) along with rising star, Hsiu-Fu Liu.

The screenplay was inspired by Nelicia’s relationship with her autistic brother and the exploration of unconditional love. Drawing from her past experience as a member of the Singapore fencing team, fencing inevitably becomes central to the plot, as Nelicia effectively builds a psychological thriller where dark emotions are hidden in a deadly game of tactics, manipulation and control.

Pierce opens with a scene of torrential rushing water and the repeated agonising screams of a woman as she sees a child struggling in the river. For what seems like an eternity, we finally see an arm of a boy rushing down to pull the almost lifeless boy out of the water. As both boys look at each other, we are introduced to the two brothers – Zijie (Liu) the boy narrowly saved from drowning, and the older brother Zihang (Tsao) in a traumatic experience that will leave a mark on the rest of their lives.

Flash forward many years later, Zijie is a college student about to join the college’s official fencing team. His older brother – a triple sabre champion of Taiwan – is serving time in juvenile prison for killing an opponent with a broken blade during a competition match. Forbidden from visiting Zihang by their mother Ai Ling (Ding Ning), Zijie holds fond memories of his brother regardless of her insistence that he always had a dark side and is beyond redemption. Unlike his mother, Zijie longs to reunite with Zihang, as he believes that his brother is innocent and what happened 7 years ago was an accident.

Zijie is overjoyed upon hearing Zihang’s early release from prison but is saddened to hear that Ai Ling has arranged for him to live in Puntung, far away from Taipei. Upon his release, Zihang initiates their reconnection as he sneaks into Zijie’s fencing class as a masked opponent. Against his mother’s advice to stay away from Zihang, he chooses to meet his brother secretly.

Meanwhile their widowed mother, Ai Ling who works as a singer in a night club has found love with a wealthy widower, Zhuang (Lin Tsu-Heng). She buries the truth about Zihang and lies to Zhuang that he is away studying medicine in John Hopkins University. To help Zihang with his living expenses, Zijie steals an expensive watch from Zhuang. Although their initial secret meetings are awkward, the brothers eventually reconnect as Zihang trains Jijie to develop his fencing skills, techniques, and utilises the art of deception to read and counter opponents to win at a level that comes across almost sociopathic. As they bond over fencing, Zihang understands and encourages – what their mother refuses to see – that Zijie is gay and has a bumbling crush on his sparring partner, Hui (Rozen Tsai). On his brother’s advice, Zijie goes on a date with Hui which proves to be adorably funny and provides some of the lighter moments in the film. With Zihang’s coaching, Zijie’s technique and skills improve vastly, and he is selected to participate at the upcoming National Championships.

Amidst the happiness of finding love and reconciliation with his brother, the foreboding undercurrent of darkness in the film remains and creeps up notch by notch. We vacillate in our view that Zihang may be innocent after all and perhaps Ai Ling is overly protective of her younger son to the extent that she had convinced herself that her first born is evil. A scene at a restaurant changes the atmosphere when during a meal with his soon-to-be-stepfather’s family, Zihang happily embellishes his mother’s lies about his studies in US, deceiving everyone with his easy charm, until a little boy sitting next to Zijie is disturbed to the point of bursting into uncontrollable tears.

I am blown away by the final scenes at the national fencing tournament, where Zijie is shocked by the surprise appearance of Zihang and the terrifying bloody turn of events which follows. Particularly disturbing and moving is the scene when Zijie caresses his brother’s hand and says “It no longer matters even if you were going to watch me drown”, referring to the river incident when both of them were younger. It seems at this point that Zijie has come to terms and fully embraced his unconditional love for his brother.

You cannot help who you love, and you certainly cannot choose your family members. It is an unfortunate fact of life. Which of the brother truly survives in the aftermath of their fencing match? Experience the film for yourself and be drawn into its intrigue and web of deception to discover the outcome.

Core to this film is the excellent performances and the fantastic interaction between the two terrific young actors – Liu Hsiu-Fu Liu and Tsao Yu-Ning in their roles of two brothers who are completely different. Tsao with his chiselled features effectively channels the possible psychopath with a blood-chilling calmness, and quiet manipulation which suggests he is hiding his evil intentions, while Liu is a clear contrast and foil to Tsao with innocent big eyes, which are constantly torn between his doubt and desire to accept and love his brother regardless of what his brother has done. The character development in Pierce is well done, with the right dose of emotional scenes contrasted with the more tense sections with Tsao at the forefront.

Nelicia Low undoubtedly deserves her award with her film which is a moving and intriguing story of unconditional love between family set amidst the complex arena of fencing where emotions and intentions are hidden behind mesh masks. I am excited and looking forward to more from her in the near future if this film is any indicator of her talents.
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