James Su has already made a name for himself, by winning the Golden Horse Award for best documentary for “Hip-Hop Storm”, being the youngest director to do so, at the age of 27. In 2019, he started working with feature films, shooting a full one, “Cordelia Scissors” and this particular short, “Nine Shots“, which is based on an actual case that took place in 2016, when a 27-year-old worker was shot 9 times after an altercation with the police.
Nine Shots is screening at Vienna Shorts
The story revolves around Ah Fei, a young Vietnamese who left his country to work in Taiwan, in an effort to earn more money to send back to his father. However, his boss exploits him and when he decides to leave, he ends up being an illegal worker. His life is hard and the only good times he experiences are those he spends with his friends on the beach. One day, however, while he is lying on the beach by himself, he is confronted by a policeman. Not being able to speak Taiwanese, he is immediately perceived as hostile, and soon after, he tries to escape with the policeman chasing him. In an irrational decision, he gets inside the police vehicle and in an even more irrational one, the policeman shoots him through the window of the car. Not once, however, but nine times. A bit later, his father arrives from Vietnam to take his body home and be present in a trial he understands very little about, and just listens to witnesses accusing his son as a drug addict.
In a rather minimalist tone, that implies as much as it shows, James Su manages to present the life conditions of immigrants in Taiwan, by focusing on a rather shocking incident that induces the film with a very harsh, but also very realistic essence. Evidently, witnessing the policeman shoot nine times (first four and then five more) is the scene that defines the short, and will definitely stay on the mind of the viewer for quite some time.
Of equal significance, however, regarding the point Su wants to make, are also the scenes that follow. The dialogue between the lawyer and the police officers regarding the costs of the funeral, the truly sad figure of the father during the trial, and the sort of memorial that also involves singing during the finale, also add to the sense of shock and sadness that permeates the narrative. The fact that Su leaves unclear if Ah Fei was under the influence of alcohol or drugs is also a comment, since, considering what happened in the end, it does not matter. The policeman’s actions cannot be justified in any way.
The film’s aesthetics focus on realism and are very close to that of the documentary, with the style of coloring and the cinematography, which is mostly comprised of medium and long shots, pointing towards this direction. At the same time, the style of the image is permeated by a retro essence, reminiscent of Takeshi Kitano’s movies during the 90’s, which also works quite well for the narrative.
Considering that the case is still ongoing, “Nine Shots” is a very timely short, which is also well-shot and quite focused on showing what happened was nothing less than an execution.
