For her debut feature film Pierce, writer and director Nelicia Low (Freeze, Let Her Eat Cake) took a look back to her past a member of the national Singapore fencing team, and her curiosity at the complicated relationship between her and her older brother who is autistic, to craft a technically impressive and emotionally dynamic story about a very intensely dysfunctional relationship between two brothers that share a love of fencing and mistrust of each other.
Image courtesy of Magnify
There’s no one that can understand you and frustrate you like a sibling can, and for Zi-jie (Liu Hsui-fu) these are emotions he wishes he felt for his older brother Zi-han (Tsao Yu-Ning), whose reappearance into his and their mother Ai-Ling’s (Ding Ning) life brings feelings of fear an uncertainty. Spending most of his childhood and adolescence building up a fantasy in his head about who his brother truly is, Zi-jie against the warnings of Ai-ling, pays a visit to his brother at the supermarket where he works after being released from a juvenile detention facility. He excitedly, but still apprehensively expresses that he’s missed having Zi-han around and wants them to get to know each other again. But unbeknownst to him, this one act, just like the one that Zi-han had committed all those years ago, starts a chain reaction of events that will ripple across the family’s lives and those of everyone around them.
Pierce is a psychological thriller that pushes its characters to their emotional limits where the bonds of familial relationships are stretched, misshapen and pierced. As Zi-jie begins to questions his own beliefs about his brother, Zi-han tries to convince himself that he’s capable of love, and Ai-ling does her best to hold onto what vestiges of a normal life she’d managed to weave together for herself and Zi-jie, the audience is taken on a thrilling ride of fantastic performances by the cast, particularly its two main leads, and Nelicia’s excellently crafted story about mistaken identity and misdirection.
Image courtesy of Magnify
The characters of Zi-han and Zi-jie would demand a lot of any actor selected to play them, but to be perfectly honest, not every actor could’ve played these two characters the same way and make their dynamic work the way that Yu-ning and Hsui-fu do. As Zi-han, Yu-ning perfectly portrays his charming side, the side that endears people to him and see the potential in this young man his mother has told people will be a doctor one day. A lie that she tells for the safety and social preservation of her and Zi-jie to hide the truth about their family. It’s this charm that Zi-han uses to slyly ease his way back into Zi-jie’s life in a way that should have caused alarm, but doesn’t for the brother who wants to believe him to be something he’s not. But underneath that carefully crafted facade lies a dangerous nature that Zi-han is unable to hide when he’s on the fencing mat facing his opponents. Yu-Ning is impressive in how he lets Zi-han’s aggression slip out with each parry of his sabre, but carefully masks it once he lifts off the fencing hood.
Hsui-fu’s Zi-jie is an excellent foil for Zi-han’s intensity as it off-balances him with Zi-jie’s openness and unfortunate naivete. Though this naiveness can be frustrating for Ai-ling and the audience alike to witness, it’s understandable because Zi-jie just wants his brother back. He believes that his love of fencing, perhaps inspired by wanting to form some sort of connection with a brother he doesn’t really know, will be the way to forge that bond. But it proves to be anything but. It’s all of these layers and so much more that Nelicilia Low has truly done a brilliant job of building such a wonderfully complex and highly entertaining film.
Image courtesy of Magnify
In my interview with her for the films screening at the 2024 Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival, she discussed her through process in using her own experiences to build the story and characters, how sound, water, and wind were important visual and auditory elements, and why a dinner scene involving a little boy is the personal favorite for both of us. It’s so good. And that ending!
Pierce which is a multinational production between Singapore, Taiwan, and Poland, won Nelicia the Crystal Globe Award for Best Director at the 2024 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, and the Grand Jury Prize for Best Film at the La Roche-sur-Yon International Film Festival. The film also won the Dipchand LLP Best Feature Award at Reel Asian.
Image courtesy of Magnify
Carolyn Hinds
Freelance Film Critic, Journalist, Podcaster & YouTuber
African American Film Critics Association Member, Tomatometer-Approved Critic
Host & Producer Carolyn Talks…, and So Here’s What Happened! Podcast
Bylines at Authory.com/CarolynHinds
PTwitter & Instagram: @CarrieCnh12
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