Yang saw the film The Wrath of God by the New Wave German director Werner Herzog. Yang was shocked: "I realized you didn't have to make films like Hollywood. I realized that you could use your initiative, that you could make a spirited film in the most difficult of circumstances. And I thought, 'Maybe I still have a chance to make films.'"
一個偶然的機會，看到德國電影新浪潮導演荷索的作品《天譴》，讓楊德昌十分震撼，「原來電影可以不必像好萊塢那樣拍，可以憑著一個人意念，在很惡劣的情況下，還能拍出生動的電影，也許我還是有機會的」，他想。