"If with films, we experience many more lives than we actually can in one lifetime, then YI -YI is a whole life experience in 3 hours."- The New York Times
Plot Overview :
The film follows three different generations of a well-off Taipei family. The film begins with the marriage of Ah-Di , an irresponsible young man, to his pregnant girlfriend.Stricken with grief over son's tacky choice for a wife, the family's matriarch suffers a
stroke, and Min-Min , her middle-aged daughter, is so traumatized she seeks solace with a local religious cult. At the wedding reception, Min-Min's workaholic software engineer husband, NJ bumps into his childhood girlfriend, in a chance meeting. Meanwhile, the couple's shy teenage daughter, Ting-Ting , risks her friendship with her neighbor Lin by dating her troubled boyfriend.And then there is Yang-Yang (Min-Min and NJ's) 8-year old son , a curious and aloof boy, becomes obsessed with snapping pictures of the back of people's heads.Review :
Like the films of Robert Altman (Short Cuts) and Paul Thomas Anderson (Boogie Nights, Magnolia), Yi Yi is an amalgamation of several plots whirling around a common hub. In Yi Yi that hub is family. And overriding these individual stories, in which each character re-evaluates his or her identity, is a portrait of a family that is fractured and unable to function as the support structure for which it is intended. But what makes Yi Yi so powerful is that it is a portrayal of a dysfunctional family that does not throw plates at each other or get into screaming matches across the dinner table. This is a family in which the breakdowns happen indeterminately, and largely without incident. It is also a family in which almost all viewers will recognize some similarity with their own.
Yi Yi has all the pleasures of the best ensemble pieces – the interactions of a large cast, their lives, their hopes and their ambitions, and bringing them together in all their contradictions and conflicts, working with each other and against each other. In this alone there is enough in Yi Yi to make a fascinating and quite brilliant film, but it also manages to say so much about the everyday lives and realities of middle-class people living in Taipei – it’s about city life, the conditions of family life there, the expectations for education, employment, leisure and their outlook, being part of a country.
Each member and each generation of the Jian family have different drives and ambitions. For NJ, it is to have control and authority over important decisions that need to be made in the company he has invested in .For his wife Min Min , she comes to the realisation as she talks to her mother who is lying in a bedroom in a coma, that her daily life can be reduced and summarised in two minutes, and none of it is meaningful. Ting Ting, their teenage daughter, wants to emulate the beautiful and musically talented girl next door, and have a boyfriend like hers.Yang Yang just wants to fit in at school, but seems to constantly be picked on by teachers and other children. We don’t know what ambitions the grandmother has because she is in a coma, but each of the family comes to speak to her as if she is the representative of past generations, seeking approval for the complications that threaten to take over their lives and answers to the questions they can’t answer.Even within these self-contained plots, there are storylines and characters that add color and
depth to an already rich movie. There are sudden mergings of storylines, and several unanticipated plot twists. But Director Edward Yang has done such an incredible job crafting his characters, and his actors perform so exquisitely, that the action appears almost uncomfortably natural. By allowing natural pauses in dialogue, and allowing his character's motivations to be inferred and rarely stated, Yi Yi comes off as one of the least contrived movies I have ever seen."Yi yi" isn't flashy. It doesn't intertwine all of these characters' story lines with clever narrative
sleight of hand; it doesn't pile coincidences on top of coincidences like these multi-narrative ensemble films frequently do. It's not histrionic, and it doesn't build to some overheated climax. It's not interested in doing any of those things. It unfolds the way life unfolds, and it makes us deeply care about these people, and even makes us love them in a way, flaws and all. It reminded me very much of an Ozu film, with its static camera that chooses to sit back and observe rather than tell us how to feel.
Ultimately, this is a film that will force its audience to examine their own families. After witnessing the dysfunction and genuine love on display in Yi Yi, there are bound to be moments that remind you, perhaps uncomfortably, of your relationship with close relatives. And perhaps some of these revelations would have gone unnoticed if it were not for Yi Yi. It is a measure of the film's greatness that it not only entertains, but also allows us to better understand ourselves. This is a rare film, and one to be cherished.Director Edward Yang uses the visual candy diligently and incorporates it nicely into his narrative. His script is very poetic and allows for a lot of reflective pause which is supported by silent stunning images.He really deserved to win the Best Director award at the Cannes Film Festival in 2000.The cinematography is very simple, and in this age of ultra-fast MTV cutting, to have long one-take scenes where actors' performances aren't manipulated is a pleasure to see.Every shot of the movie is like a painting in its own right. Hats off to cinematographer
Wei-han Yang for getting so many splendid images on film.The melodious sondtrack for this film is composed (using different variations of Beethoven's moonlight sonata ) by Yang's wife Peng Kaili.Among the cast Master Chang as Yang-Yang is one of the movie's greatest joys. This is a child wise far beyond his years, but although he "feels old" (as he describes in one moment), he maintains the innocence of youth .Chang's thoughtfulness carries over to the rest of the cast.[Note :Edward Yang died last year, at the age of 59, with "Yi Yi" being his last work. I haven't had the chance to see his other films yet, but this emotional epic would be enough to seal his name as one of Asia's most remarkable filmmakers.]
[Note: In the Sight & Sound poll of UK film critics Yi Yi is considered as the 10th best film of the last 25 years, up there with The Godfather ,Apocalypse Now, Fanny and Alexander ,Raging Bull.....]
Conclusion:
"We live three times as long ever since they invented films " says one of the characters in the film. If that statement is true, then I can assure you that by watching YI-YI ,you will live longer.
Title : YI YI (A ONE AND A TWO)
Director :Edward Yang
Country :Taiwan
Language :Mandarin
Rated PG-13 for Language
DVD EXTRAS : a full audio commentary from late writer-director Edward Yang and critic Tony Rayns “Everyday Realities”: Tony Rayns on New Taiwanese Cinema Theatrical Trailer
Torrent File Name :Yi Yi.A.One.And.A.Two.2000.iNT.DVDRip.XviD-HigHoT Trailer Link :www.spout.com/films/Yi_Yi/154830/880073/trailers.aspx
