Pierce

West Coast Premiere

Best Director, 2024 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival
Official Selection, 2024 Vancouver International Film Festival

In this showstopping thriller, tender high school fencer Zi-jie’s world is about to turn upside down when his terrifying older brother, convicted for murdering a teammate, gets an early prison release and heads his way. Zi-han (Tsao Yu-Ning of Kano, SDAFF ‘14) insists he was wrongfully imprisoned, but something isn’t right about him, and nobody wants him back, especially their single mother, (Ding Ning in a knockout performance).

As the charismatic brother secretly creeps into Zi-jie’s world and coaches him for a big championship match, Zi-jie can’t decide if Zi-han is a violent snake-charmer or the misunderstood brother he’s longed for. And as Zi-jie clings to razor-thin signs of his brother’s humanity, queer longing for a teammate shyly blooms amidst foils whipping through the air, victory shrieks, and the non-stop metal clanging of slicing blades and unreadable masks.

A champion fencer herself, Nelicia Low’s feature debut weaves a tautly unsteady visual and aural space — the stuff of dreams and danger, faces lit by moonlight in an almost hallucinatory soundscape. It’s a nimble highwire act inspired by Low’s childhood with an autistic brother that questions the relevance of truth in matters of the heart. Heart-pumping and fully in control, PIERCE is a thrilling cinematic chess match about the fantasies of love that keep us guessing and gaslighting until its final shocking end.

– Christina Ree

As part of the Taiwan Showcase, this screening is FREE for UCSD students, faculty, and staff with ID.