The Terrorizers may predate Magnolia, Crash, Amores Perros and the whole fractured-narrative brigade, but Edward Yang got there first—and arguably did it better. A novelist, her collapsing marriage, a wayward teen, and a photographer all orbit each other in Taipei, their lives brushing past one another in quiet, unsettling ways. Unlike the bombast of later ensemble dramas, Yang keeps things clinical and composed—even at boiling point. Each frame is purposeful, each silence deliberate. His off-centre compositions demand that you really watch—not just the people, but the architecture, the city, the absence. Performances are cool, precise, but deeply affecting. The emotional wreckage is subtle, but devastating.