楊德昌的《牯嶺街少年殺人事件》（1991）由於研究材料取得上的困難，二十五年來的研究論文仍然相當有限。不同於形式分析、女性主義、後殖民理論與心理分析的角度，本文以新批評的細讀與敘事學的方法，釐清電影如何透過角色的類比與對比，包含政治的現實主義者、道德的理想主義者與勢利的弄權者之間的妥協與衝突，在舞臺上架構出一齣殉道者的道德悲劇。其次，透過《牯嶺街》作為一部歷史電影，脈絡化上述的人物角色與道德衝突，探討1960年代的國家機器如何形塑了一群道德的理想主義者，而他們理想主義又為何必然與整個時代產生矛盾與衝突。

Due to its inconvenient access, Edward Yang’s masterpiece A Brighter Summer Day, for the past twenty five years, has ellicited very few research articles. To make a contribution to this premature scholarship, this article focuses on the subject matter of the film and employes the method of narratology to argue that through the devices of similarity and contrast, Yang presents an ambitious moral tragedy on the cinematic stage where the heros attempt to realize their moral ideals even at the cost of their inclinations, self-interests and lives. Viewing the film as Yang’s historical reflection on the 1960s, the article then unravel the ways by which the state apparatuse interpellates some individuals into moral subjects and explicate why these moral idealists are doomed to confront and conflict with the millieu.