Pierce Film Poster

[MOVIE REVIEW] Pierce (feat. Hsiu-Fu Liu, Yu-Ning Tsao, Ning Ding)

I enjoy a good psychological thriller so I was looking forward to this movie, especially since the story also heavily-centres on the bond between two brothers and I have a soft spot for family stories. Plus, I always get that much more excited to watch local productions at the Busan International Film Festival!

Pierce follows high school fencer Zijie (played by Hsiu-Fu Liu) who learns that his older brother, Zihan (played by Yu-Ning Tsao), is being released early from prison. Their mother (played by Ning Ding) wants to deny Zihan’s existence, lying about his identity to her prospective in-laws, believing him to be a psychopath who deliberately killed his opponent during a fencing match. But Zijie remembers his older brother as the one who saved him from drowning and goes against his mother’s wishes to reconnect with Zihan and practise fencing with him.

Official trailer:

[WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD] 

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I’m not sure how many of you are actually familiar with fencing as a sport, but I personally understand nothing about it. When I happen to watch a fencing match during the Olympics, I’m always confused by how points are awarded, and how to actually play this sport. But I gained a newfound appreciation for the sport after watching Pierce, which likened fencing to playing a game of chess, where each player has to anticipate their opponent’s next move in order to make theirs, and hopefully win a point. There’s actually a strategy to the game, and not just to keep poking and hope you poke first (I’m sorry but that was what I thought was happening at the games) for your point to be “registered”.

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Anyway, while fencing is the main medium used to tell the story in Pierce, the over-arching theme, to me, is familial love. On one hand, we have Zijie who loves his brother Zihan, regardless of his past, believing him to be a good person and his saviour when they were children. Then, we have their mother, who seems to be terrified of her own son, Zihan, and doesn’t seem to exhibit any form of love or affection towards him. Finally, we have, of course, Zihan, who seems to love his brother Zijie, or at least wants to get close to him. While watching it, I was thinking how if blood is really thicker than water, how can the mother seem to feel nothing towards her own flesh and blood? But on the flipside, is it possible to love someone just because they’re family, even if they’re a cold-blooded murderer? These are really difficult questions to answer, and maybe there are no real answers.

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I happened to attend the GV (Guest Visit) session of the screening where I learnt that the inspiration behind this story was partly due to the director’s own experience growing up with an older autistic brother, as well as the 2014 Taipei Metro attack, and of course, her own experiences as a national fencer. I think all the themes blended really harmoniously in this film.

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As you can probably guess by now, this movie made me think a lot. But back to the actual movie. It begins with Zijie practising fencing but being really bad at it and not having much hope of making it to the school team. When he finds out that his brother is getting released early from prison, he considers meeting him at the prison gates, before backing out last minute. Then Zihan suddenly shows up at fencing practice, much to Zijie’s shock and bewilderment. After giving him some fencing tips and telling Zijie where to find him, he leaves. Initially wanting to just help Zihan out, Zijie passes him some cash and told him not to show up ever again. Instead, the two brothers end up getting close while practising fencing together, with Zihan making Zijie a much better fencer, so much so that he makes it to the school team! Then another accident happens during training where Zihan’s opponent is injured by his broken blade, causing Zijie to cast doubt on Zihan’s innocence…

The above paragraph is basically a very summarised plot which only focuses on the two brothers. There were other things going on which added to the depth of the story, but where’s the fun in watching the film if you already read everything in a review right?

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This movie left me feeling really disturbed and the sounds used in the film still linger in my mind. In particular, during the last scene between the two brothers, Zijie is seen caressing his brother’s hand with his thumb, and the sound director basically added this sound of like tightening a dial knob? I heard the sound recently when someone on the train was tightening the dial knob on her shoes? Anyway, it was quite a creepy sound to be matched with the action of caressing one’s hands, I think. During that scene, Zijie also says something like – “It no longer matters even if you were going to watch me drown,” which basically showed how his love for his brother was unconditional. It sounds quite crazy but love is, in a way, crazy and can’t really be explained, right? It’s not rational to love a murderer, but it wouldn’t be love if it was rational. Which I guess is sort of the message, here? You can’t help who you love, and you can’t choose your family members. It is but an unfortunate blessing in life.

I’m floored by the fact this was the director’s debut film, and I was also very impressed by the cast’s acting. I won’t say that this is a film for everyone because it can be a little disturbing to watch, and maybe it’s uncomfortable to question your own views about family, sibling love, morality… But if you enjoy a good psychological thriller, you might really want to check this out.

This film was screened during the 2024 Busan International Film Festival

Watch it when it’s out in Singapore theatres on 7th November!

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