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Summary: A story about the meaning of life, among other things
Review: Yi Yi is such a sophisticated and multifaceted movie that everyone probably will get something different out of the movie; each viewer will identify with one or more of the characters in the film in some way. The film basically follows the stories of the four members of a typical Taiwanese family. While I was readying myself to be bored by yet another foreign film depicting everyday life, I was surprised to find the family's stories so compelling - I wanted to know what would happen to the people in the film.Yi Yi not only gives Westerners a look at modern Asian life but also presents some Eastern philosophy along the way. For example, in the beginning of the movie, the mother complains that her life is meaningless, that every day she does the same monotonous things over and over. By the end of the movie, she comes to the realization that life is really not so complicated. You can't live a good or bad life - you simply live it. The writer/director obviously thought a lot about life while writing the script. The movie portrays almost every human emotion and many aspects of human life. In the course of the movie we see a young boy having his first crush on a girl in his school, a teenaged girl dating and then breaking up with her first boyfriend, a mother living a midlife crisis, and a father trying to make a business deal - and meeting with someone from his past along the way. We see a marriage, an affair, a fight, a death, and much more along the way. The interactions between the characters are very real and believable. The pace of the movie is deliberate and thoughtful; there are many pauses throughout the film to show that the characters are thinking and to increase tension in the story. It's quite a change of pace from typical fare where it seems the director is going quickly from scene to scene in order to hit all the bases in the plot. All in all, Yi Yi is a great film that almost everyone can identify with in some way. If you can enjoy a foreign language film with subtitles that's about people and life, you likely will enjoy this film immensely.
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Summary: The Japanese version of Avalon
Review: The parallels are striking starting with the members of an extended family who celebrate their cultural traditions from birth to death while overcoming jealousies, disappointments in love and business, and ongoing family feuds that result from growing up and growing old.
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Summary: A MASTERPIECE.... FOX LORBER BOTCHES TRANSFER AGAIN!
Review: The film is sublime, amazing, breathtaking and a whole bunch of other words that mean the same thing =) Most people who are reading this review probably already know all the praise. If you're not familiar with Yang's work, the closest American equivalent is the Altman of SHORT CUTS or the Anderson of MAGNOLIA but YI YI makes those films seem even more insignificant. The DVD offers an audio commentary by the writer/director. Yang broadly discusses technique, casting and how he drew from both Taiwanese society and his own life. If you're looking for an academic commentary, you may be disappointed. His comments felt more like a friendly conversation than a Benjamin book. One reservation: Fox Lorber needs to desperately work on their DVD transfers. The picture for YI YI is 'boxey' and soft. At times, it's difficult to make out facial expressions. That being said, I commend Fox Lorber for even putting out a DVD for this wonderful film. Hopefully with the success of this film, other films from the Taiwanese 'New Cinema' will find wide release =)
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Summary: Taiwan's "American Beauty"
Review: Actually, call it the "Taiwanese American Beauty" is a bit of insult to Yi-Yi. Both films deal with the day-in, day-out routine, the stress, with numerous encounters. American Beauty has lots of anger building up till it explodes, while in Yi-Yi, the main characters NJ and his daughter, are sensibly calm and rational to face the turning point of life. This kind of theme are similarly expressed by Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Ozu, and Hirokazu Kore-eda in their films. For a western looking for a way out in the busy daily schedule, this film provide you with a spring of eastern culture that may give you some fresh air.
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Summary: Literally eye-opening.
Review: this staggering update of the 1950s American melodrama (it frequently quotes 'Rebel Without a Cause') pits the stifling monumentality of Taiwanese capitalism, the way it compartmentalises and minimises its servants in boxes (all those frames - windows, doors etc.), and turns them into non-persons, shadows (all those reflections in mirrors, windows etc.), removed from life while seeming to be living it. Yang's great achievement is to make a humanist, character driven film without getting soft or soppy, fixing a formal, modernist apparatus on it that makes connections - through incident, character, colour (those startling reds and cool blues), metaphor (doubling, reproductions), location - way beyond the narrow knowledge of his protagonists. Like his young namesake Yang-Yang, he wants to show them what's behind their heads.
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Summary: What is life?
Review: The meaning of life, it's true meaning and possibility as opposed to what the social convention says it is, and we--as part of that society-- think it means, is a recurrent theme in Edward Yang's works. The gap between what you are expected to be by the society and what you expect yourself to be being part of the same society, of having a "respectful" life according to social conventions (i.e. having a "respectable" marriage, being a successful therefore repectable businessman, having a respectable consumarist behavior of sorrounding with all those "respactable" goods as advertised on commercials) and what you really are, what you really expect from life. It's a pitty that his two former films, MAHJONG and A CONFUCIAN CONFUSION are not available in the States. Because in many ways, YI-YI is the answer to the questions posed in these two films. Take the women in this film for instance: their "sexuality"--as much as they look so sexy in those China dresses and expensive clothing in vogue-- are also part of the social consumarist conventions: they "sell" their sexuality to obtain what they think they want, like gag of the Taiwanese the copy of the Japanese game programmer (unfortunately untranslatable), and the big boss being a "feminist". Actually the Japanese guy's name "Ota" means "big rice field", while the copy (only mentioned by name in the film) call herself "Shao-Dien", meaning "small rice field" (Chinese and Japanese culture share the same letters so this kind of gag is made possible). It's part of the whole theme of the film which is the gap between representations (images, advetisements, the media, etc.,) and the reality, the truth. Of course, the Chinese language which has letters that does not only represent phonetics but also meanings by themsleves is very effective in that system of represetation , but I don't think these things are particulary Chinese or Asian. It's true in almost all contemporary societies; US, Europe, Japan... and of course Taiwan. Seeing this film, you'll be surprised how many Starbucks Coffee and McDonalds and Cinema complexes there are in Taipei--which makes no difference from LA or NY or Berlin or Paris or Tokyo today. The reflections that you see everywhere in this films, on reflecting surfaces of modern buildings, on windows, on TV screens, etc... are very important (and Edward Yang claims that he became aware of them only after he started shooting this film) because it suggests that the life we see may be a false one. This film is not only the best Chinese-language film ever made in the last decade, but a poignant yet gentle and touching statement about our contemporary consumer society, and how one can find the true meaning of life in it, how one can achieve a true personal freedom inspite of all those things that bind an blind us. It is a must see film
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Summary: Cinema can be so honest, life can be so simple and moving
Review: If you are looking for an exciting, exotic depiction of Chinese culture, or want to feel some catharsis by watching how the simple, good hearted Chinese people are surviving through their economical difficulty or the oppression of their cultural tradition, don't bother about this one. But if you are an intelligent audience who is looking for a true contemporary cinema, a film that talks about the kind of life you yourself are living, a sincere piece of art that deals with your own problems that you are facing every day, a cinema that explores the meaning of our own lives, you must see this film, and most certainly will be deeply moved. The film depicts the life of an ordinary, contemporary urban based family that you can find in every big cities around the world, New York, Los Angeles, Paris, Berlin, London, Tokyo... or in Taipei, the modern capital of a contemporary Taiwan. Edward Yang's camera observes these people with love and compassion, yet without falling into melodrama. The film begin with a typical Chinese wedding, where everything is supposed to be happy, yet Yang focuses on a more negative side of it; the groom's overly cheerful attitudes are only the reverse of his insecurity, for instance. From this wedding begins the story of the family; the groom's mother suddenly taken ill, and her daughter's family dealing with every-day problems. The father runs a computer company with his friends, but it is facing bankruptcy. The children's lives goes on as well. The daughter who goes to high school experiences her first love. Her 8 years old younger brother is starting to understand what life is. The mother, asides from her job in a office, has to take care of her ill mother now in coma. Following her doctor's instruction, the family members start to talk to her, because the doctor says even if she can't react, she still can hear and that would help her recovery. But what can you talk to somebody who doesn't respond? The mother suddenly realizes that she has nothing to say, that her life is empty. To save his company, the father flies to Japan to meet a Japanese game programer. This person tells him, "Why are we always afraid of 'the first time'? When we wake up, every morning is the beginning of a new day". This word gives him an inspiration to see his life in a completely new perspective. The title means "one, one" in Chinese, which represents simplicity. "Simplicity" is the key-term of both the style and the story of the film; the simplicity of the quiet, static long takes that allows Edward Yang, one of the truly greats among contemporary cinema, to capture the complexity of life, and the simplicity of philosophy with which we can re-discover what life is really all about. Edward Yang, undoubtly the greatest talent in contemporary Chinese language cinema (and of the world) radically departs from the frenzy camera movements of his two former comedies about the consumer-driven materialist contemporary world, MAHJONG and A CONFUCIAN CONFUSION. It is also quite different from the harsh, cold, modernist style of his highly appreciated early masterpieces such as TAIPEI STORY, THE TERRORIZERS and the highly acclaimed A BRIGHTER SUMMER DAY. Yet all the thematic elements of his earlier works culminates in this film, for "life" involves every thing there is in our society and our world. YI-YI is about consumerism, about self doubt, about honesty, about death, about love, about family, and a true freedom to live that is waiting for us in this world. And more than that, this film is truly about life. YI-YI is an undisputed masterpiece. Probably the greatest achievement Yang has ever achieved, the best film of his fruitful filmography, and one of the most truthful, sincere film coming out from not only the Chinese language cinema, but from the contemporary world cinema. Where ever the film was screened, the audience are moved into tears. Not because the film is a well-made tear jerker (in fact, there are almost no tragic elements in its story), but because we are touched at the very depth of our heart.
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Summary: An Absolutely Beautiful Movie
Review: "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon" has been getting all the attention with its high-flying kung-fu action, but "Yi Yi" may very well be the best movie to come out of Taiwan in 2000. This movie reminded me a lot of Wong Kar-Wai movies (with the exception of "In the Mood for Love", "Yi Yi" is probably the most beautifully filmed movie I saw in the past year) but unlike Wong's movies which often place more emphasis on style than stories, "Yi Yi" has more accessible plot lines -- half a dozen of them, in fact. It starts at a wedding and ends at a funeral, and packed in the middle is a story of a Taipei family, each reacting to different crises in their lives. Clocking at almost 3 hours, you may find this movie a bit long and slow at times, but I absolutely loved every minute of this movie, because all the stories are told with such patience and subtlety. Edward Yang (the director/writer) also does a wonderful job with character development, and while you may struggle to figure out who's who in the beginning of the movie, you will no doubt get to know and care about each member of the troubled Jiang family by the end of the movie. "Yi Yi" will make you cry and it will make you laugh. But most of all, it will make you glad that you didn't miss out on this gem of a movie.
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Summary: Worst DVD Transfer Ever!
Review: The quality of this DVD makes The Last Emperor transfer actually look good by comparison. Yi-Yi was filmed in 35mm, but to see it on DVD you'd swear it was done in 8mm. On top of that, the images are jittery, not smoothe. The people who oversaw the production of this DVD, Maryann Manelski and Kimberly Rubin, have a lot of explaining to do.
Rating:
Summary: No thank you.
Review: I found Yi Yi to be a tedious film, at times the action and characters felt quite contrived and cliched. The subtitles were poorly highlighted and I often could not figure out who was speaking the line. The only refreshing thing in the movie was the final scene at the grandmother's funeral, but it was not worth a three hour wait to get to this poigant scene. Do yourself a favor, and skip this one.
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