| Yi Yi |
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| Rating: Good Distributor: Fox Lorber Yi Yi in English means literally "One" twice, but together it is supposed to mean "A One and a Two." Release Date: October 6th, 2000 (very limited), wider months afterward until the end of the first quarter of 2001. MPAA Rating: (not rated) Genre: Drama, Foreign Language Spoken in Taiwenese and Mandarin with English subtitles as well as some dialogue spoken in English Running Length: 2 hours, 53 minutes Director: Edward Yang Cast: Wu Nienjen, Kelly Lee, Jonathan Chang, Issey Ogata, Elaine Jin, Ke Suyun and Shu-shen Hsiao. |
| Plot: Yi Yi is an in-depth look about a family. Its mother's mother is dying, and she is hoping religion will help her. Its father is trying to make some major business decisions, including whether to join with Ato, a cheap company, or Ota, a wise, friendly man. His son is a quirky little fella, who is picked on, but is kind and takes pictures of everyone with his camera. The daughter is trying to pursue a relationship with a really odd boy named Fatty. The father's brother is getting married, but has a mistress. All these elements are developed as the story moves along, as well as the relationships between all of them. |
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| Critique: Yi Yi cannot be ignored because of its very real depiction of family and everyday life. It should not however be revered as a masterpiece, as many critics have called it. Although Edward Yang's script is nothing less than brilliant, his direction creates a contradictory dreary mood to what should be an uplifting film. Although Yang has remarkable control over his actors, he has no power over his tone. That is a weakness that unfortunately he will probably not reform thanks to the over complimentary response from critics. His script however, is very layered and well balanced. He attempts to give us a family that although is going through some tough times, is pretty normal. Also, for a film that is about 3 hours long, it really is not that pretentious. Yang just wanted to make a story with a lot of subplots, and so needed a bigger palet. I think actually it would be nice to see more films try to do what Yang attempted. That is to be ambitious and work hard to challenge the audience with your storyline. One of the flaws with Yi Yi, however, is it often needed a good kick in the ass. It needed some more spirit, heart, and that defect probably goes back to the tone. I think more music would have helped Yi Yi dramatically. I don't understand why Yang decided to create such a depressing mood. Was he trying to make our lives more gloomy than they are to tell us what our weaknesses are? It's too quirky, and humane a film to do that, and it really has some nice emotional involvement. In conclusion, Yi Yi is a well acted, well written film. It's tone however is too murky, and draws a paradox to its uplifting storyline. Thus, I feel this is Yang's triumph in writing, and failure as a director. Still it is a very worthwhile film. review by supernothingman |