These days I've come across an account that discusses Yang Dechang's films very well:

A Bite of Light.

Yang Dechang is my favorite director because his films don’t feel like films,

but rather like a portrayal of how modern people slowly lose each other through relationships, desires, misunderstandings, and the collapse of order.

I remember many years ago when I finished watching it for the first time; it wasn’t shock, nor was it emotion, but a heavy feeling in my heart, as if something had collided several times inside, and those collisions felt very real.

What is Yang Dechang about?

He tells us all that people don’t suddenly become bad, and society doesn’t suddenly go bad. Everything slowly deteriorates through countless misunderstandings, avoidance, self-packaging, and systematic failures.

Last night, I had a bit of free time and rewatched "The Murder Incident on Guling Street" and "Terrorist" accompanied by commentary;

each time I watch, I delve a little deeper:

1｜Fate

Many people feel cold when they first watch Yang Dechang.

But his coldness isn't aloof; it's a very clear-eyed compassion.

He doesn’t cry for the characters, doesn’t shout injustice on their behalf, nor is he in a hurry to provide answers; he initially shows you that sense of fate through the lens.

2｜Malfunction

The scariest thing in Yang Dechang's films is not the bad guys, but the malfunctions.

Home doesn’t feel like home, love doesn’t feel like love, ideals don’t feel like ideals, and the system doesn’t feel like a system; everyone seems to be desperately escaping, yet it feels like the grip of fate is too tight, unable to escape.

What you think isn’t what I think;

What I think isn’t what you think;

Everyone is expressing themselves, but no one is truly understood.

For instance, in "Guling Street," Xiao Si's problems aren't just personality issues;

behind him is a whole system malfunctioning: family, school, peers, era, identity, all are failing,

but those involved don’t feel the system, only the misfortune of themselves, feeling wronged by others.

Similarly, Xiao Ming is not the “femme fatale” many describe her as; she's more like someone who has known the realities of life early on in that floating era,

her vacillation, hesitation, and self-protection are, in fact, a way of survival.

Thus, in the end, you’ll find that it’s not just one youth committing murder, but a chaos, oppression, false order, and collective silence of an entire era.

3｜Loss

In "Terrorist," the character played by Li Liqun has a particularly strong sense of: loss.

Everyone seems to be living their own lives, all under the same roof, yet appear unrelated; while playing their own parts, they are gradually entering each other's fate through desires, lies, coincidences, imaginations, and projections.

No one knows what they truly want, this theme continues into "Mahjong," where indeed no one knows what they really want.

A phone call, a word, a thought, can change another person's life trajectory. Thus, the true "terror" in "Terrorist" isn’t violence, but rather: in modern cities, the invisible yet ever-ongoing mutual influences and harms between people.

And many harms aren’t even intentional.

4｜Conclusion:

I’ve always felt that Yang Dechang’s greatest strength is that he understands one thing:

Many tragedies don’t stem from a single bad person, but rather from systemic disconnection.

Family and children are disconnected, love and understanding are disconnected, language and reality are disconnected, desire and responsibility are disconnected, the speed of modern society’s development is disconnected from the pace of human emotional maturity.

The final result is: everyone seems to have done nothing wrong, yet things gradually lead to tragedy.

Ask yourself:

Have we really seen this world clearly?

Have we truly seen ourselves clearly?

Sometimes, thinking about these two questions might be even more terrifying than the films themselves.

By the way, regarding the commentary creator mentioned: A Bite of Light’s videos can be found on Bilibili and Douyin, where they discuss Yang Dechang very well; I recommend everyone to watch, or the original films are also great.

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