Brotherly bonds cut deeper than blades

Psychological thriller Pierce offers a bracing portrait of how young men seek out and cling to male role models

- John Lui

PIERCE (M18) 106 minutes, opens on Nov 7

The story: High school fencer Zijie (Liu Hsiu-fu) believes in his older brother Zihan (Tsao Yu-ning), who returns after seven years in juvenile detention following a violent incident at a fencing competition. Despite their mother's (Ding Ning) objections, Zijie secretly reconnects with his brother, causing events that will force him to question everything he believes about family and truth.

The complex dynamics of sibling relationships have long been fertile ground for psychological thrillers. Singaporean director Nelicia Low's debut feature Pierce, a Singapore-Taiwan-Poland production, joins this tradition while carving its distinctive path, using the precise, calculated world of competitive fencing as both setting and metaphor.

Low, herself a former national fencer, brings remarkable authenticity to the sports sequences. But it is in the quiet moments between matches that Pierce truly excels.