“Guy, did the world end?”
“I’m not sure.”
I don’t know who wrote the blurb for this film on the official Edinburgh Festival website, but it’s very misleading. As far as I can see, there are no “space aliens” to be found in Young Dudes, the latest feature from acclaimed Taiwanese director DJ Chen. There is certainly plenty of humour, emotion, trippy imagery and religious symbolism, but no space aliens. That said, extraterrestrial intervention is one possible explanation for the weird and wonderful sequence of events which unfolds throughout the course of the movie. In this reviewer’s opinion, however, Chen’s disarmingly beautiful vision of the 2012 apocalypse urges a more spiritual reading.
Adam and Guy (Bo-Chieh Wang and Tsuyoshi Abe) are two wannabe musicians who, convinced that the end of the world is nigh, take it upon themselves to save humanity from the coming deluge. With the help of a beautiful Russian girl Adam meets on the internet (Larisa Bakurova), they create an online community called “Klaatu” (in a clear nod to The Day the Earth Stood Still), dedicated to universal love and the enjoyment of life’s simpler pleasures. As people across the world come to believe that they really are living in the end times, Klaatu gains a massive overnight following which propels the three friends to global stardom, just as the long-predicted apocalypse seems to finally envelop them and stop time dead. It is at this moment that the film transforms, and immediately begins to invite question after question from its audience. Is everything as it appears to be? Have the three friends really stepped outside of time or are they being manipulated by a sinister cult? Are they mad, or have they really caught a glimpse of the afterlife? Is what we’re seeing real, or merely a product of Adam’s fevered imagination?
If that plot summary makes Young Dudes sound a little crazy, that’s because it is. Chen’s abandonment of a solid narrative leaves several key questions unanswered, but she gives the audience enough information to put the pieces together if they want to. The latter part of the film becomes a emotional odyssey through a world at once alien and familiar; a staggered pilgrim’s progress towards the ultimate light at the end of the tunnel. Symbolism is everywhere as the film approaches an almost overwhelming emotional crescendo, soundtracked by the David Bowie song which gives it its name. Rarely has a film about the end of the world been this uplifting, and this eager to give itself over to the reckless abandon in which Chen’s writing so wantonly indulges.
Clearly inspired by the grimy fantasy of films like Jacob’s Ladder and Twelve Monkeys, as well as the trippier fiction of Philip K. Dick, Young Dudes is a film which keeps you guessing, but never leaves you in the dark. It deserves far greater attention and analysis than it will probably receive – both at this festival and elsewhere – but if there’s any justice in the world, this film will be the subject of critical debate for many years to come. The Film Festival literature describes it as a science-fiction film, and I suppose this is true, but it’s sci-fi of the most spiritual kind. Friendship, love, the end of the world, and the search for God are grand themes indeed, but ones expressed here so eloquently and unpretentiously that it’s impossible not to be charmed by this little film’s approach to such big ideas. In short, Young Dudes is a wonderful film, and one fully deserving of your attention.
Maybe it was just space aliens, but I don’t think so.
Jim “13th Warrior” Taylor, geekzine correspondent, reporting from the Edinburgh International Film Festival 2012
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