By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.75 cats
Director: Edward Yang
Starring: Elaine Jin | Issey Ogata | Jonathan Chang | Kelly Lee | Wu Nien Jen
Country: japan, taiwan
Year: 2001
Running time: 173
IMDB: http://us.imdb.com/Details?0244316
Diane says: YI YI by Edward Yang is a Taiwanese AMERICAN BEAUTY. Members of a middle-class family go through changes, in isolation from each other (startlingly oblivious to each other’s crises, just like in this year’s novel The Bee Season). They seek meaning and solace in reviving old romances, joining a cult, starting a love affair, or through superstition. Family loyalty and the status quo are the values held up in the end. The Wes Bentley character says something like, ‘Each cloud… each tree is beautiful, so why not each one of us?’
“Nien-Jen Wu as the father is just perfect, and comic relief is provided by the philosophically-inclined eight-year-old.
“I didn’t love it as much as the critics, only because I found it too long at three hours, and the many shots through reflections in plate glass windows bothered me.” 4 cats
Laura says: “Writer/director Edward Yang’s (A BRIGHTER SUMMER DAY) YI YI is one of the year 2000’s most satisfying films on many levels. The story, while playing like a soap opera on the surface, is chock full of wry human observations while showing great affection for its characters. Technically, the film is striking in every aspect.” 5 cats
For Laura’s complete review: “http://www.reelingreviews.com/yiyi.htm”
Michael says: “Just saw the Taiwanese film YI YI last night, a three hour examination of a modern-day family. Director Edward Yang really takes his time developing the storylines of the four members of NJ’s family, father, mother, teen-aged daughter and 8-year-old son. Yang takes us through the entire life cycle, from birth, through life, with all the love and loss it entails, to death. Performances a superb all around. The adorable 8-year-old Yang Yang is priceless. Nien Jen Wu as patriarch, N.J. gives a quietly emotional performance, and Kelly Lee’s conflicted teenager, Ting-Ting handles the emotional swings of adolescence
wonderfully. All the many performances are terrific actually.” – 5 cats
Robin says: “The vast ensemble cast revolves around Wu Nienjen as NJ. The screenwriter turned actor/director plays the strong, silent type here, but a man with a great deal of emotion and feeling under his inscrutable surface. The terrific cast around him is too numerous to catalogue, but they all give solid performances right down to little Yang-Yang, whose final speech over grandma’s casket tells it all. From the mouths of babes?” 5 cats
For Robin’s complete review: “http://www.reelingreviews.com/yiyi.htm”