YI YI [The Criterion Collection] [Blu-ray] [2017]

Yi Yi traverses the generational intersections of life through reflective horoscopic love. What is life? What is love? What is death? Everyday, society wakes up to perform their daily routines, resembling crucial components in a cognitive machine. Everyday, humanity subconsciously questions the dissatisfaction of the mundane life they preside over. And every night, civilisation sleeps. Only for the repetitious cycle of daily endeavours to loop once more, until death beckons for our souls. Humanism is a contemplative philosophy, profound with its resonance to the heart, enabling the regular challenging of daily fulfilment. Work, education, love and family. Is it ever enough?The Jian family, representing a perceptive portrayal of cultural and generational differences, encounter various trials and tribulations that personify the natural order of humanity. Middle-aged father NJ increasingly growing dissatisfied with work, a business occupation surrounding itself in the venomous greed of plutocracy. NJ’s wife succumbs to a midlife crisis after her mother regresses to a comatose state after a stroke, retreating to a Buddhist temple to seek enlightenment. Their teenage daughter Ting-Ting ensnared in a troubling love triangle, whilst solely consuming the blame for her grandmother’s stroke. And the youngest son Yang-Yang, developing an interest in photography to overcome the persistent bullying from his childish female classmates.Yang’s intrepid final directorial feature before his untimely death is a slice of societal life through the perspective of middle-class Taiwan. Commencing its ornate grandeur with a joyous wedding, only to culminate in a melancholic funeral. Yi Yi, translating to One One, parallels idiosyncratic emotional turmoils between each generation gap of the same family to perpetuate the difficulties of humanistic stability and its eventual deterioration. For example, life. NJ emotes the representation of depression with his lethargic energy and solemn facial expression, indicating his general unhappiness to the corporate environment. He then meets Japanese software mogul Ota, whom provides a much required mental realignment through a spectacular sleight-of-hand card trick, after highlighting NJ’s strengths in earnest personality. His honesty. Ting-Ting, a reserved bookworm undergoing puberty, unabashedly welcomes the first male counterpart to show admiration for her. Only to inevitably end in heartache, as most school crushes do. Yang-Yang is at an age of curiosity. Coming to terms with the apparent social ineptitude by discovering a newfound hobby that would allow him to express his emotions through stills of people’s necks. Bestowing them the “whole truth”.These internal complications then transgress into parallels of love. NJ reuniting with his former flame Sherry, whom desperately yearns to participate in his life once more. The two discuss their lost love, describing the first encounter they had vividly remembered. Comparatively paralleling Ting-Ting’s first date. Holding hands whilst experiencing sweaty palms. The sudden surge of temporary emotional stability. Yang, through a simple yet hugely effective narrational parallel, uncovers the emotionality behind love and how it can determine one’s life for the subsequent years to follow. His delectable screenplay never deters from the engrossing characters on screen. These aren’t plot devices for a hyperbolised dramatic endeavour. These are reflections of reality.Accompanied by sublime cinematography from Yang, whom encapsulates the foundational imprisonment on mundane life, and Peng’s orchestral score that heightens the disparity within the Jian family, and the feature becomes an epic tapestry that invades every sense. Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata especially enhancing the quaint nature of Yang’s characters. Every single frame of the near three hour runtime has some significance, no matter how minuscule its staying power is. From seamless tracking shots of concrete office blocks to the picturesque clouds supplying the blue sky with personality. Anything and everything corresponds to an emotional stimulus.That’s the beauty of Yi Yi. Much like life itself, the adornment is found in the details. The employment of Chang and Lee as first-time actors. The extensive distance between the camera and cast. The multitude of poignant emotional breakdowns presented by the stunning performances all-round. These ripples of life echo across the generational gap that reverberate across every family in existence. Yi Yi refuses to be just a film about life. It is life. As quiet as background ambience, yet fundamentally existing. Yang’s final feature is, undoubtedly, a cinematic masterpiece of supreme resonance. One that allows Yang-Yang’s final words to latch onto my subconscious forever. For “I feel I am old, too”.

Wonderful in every sense of the word. A masterpiece

Edward Yang is arguably maligned somewhat in the vast world of Asian cinema, but he was every bit the equal of Zhang Zhiyi or even Kurosawa. This film is perhaps his best and most emotional, artistic and creative effort. Despite clocking in at nearly three hours, this film constantly keeps you watching and this Criterion release has plenty of bonus content regarding this film. Overall a great release by Criterion.

Excellent movie but beware:1. it's an A zone Bluray, official Criterion site says all their Blurays are "A" zone. Why is Amazon the only remaining site not to list the bluray zones? it's A, B, C zones not 1, 2 etc.Yesasia in Hong Kong has been doing this for a long time. The result is that I buy my blurays from Yesasia...2. it's not in Cantonese (where does this come from, hard to imagine!); the movie is in Mandarin Chinese and in Taiwanese Hokkien, nothing to do with Taiwanese at all. Not ONE word of Cantonese in the movie. Poor Edward Yang.

This is indeed a masterful family epic, a must-see for fans of Asian films, and for fans of 'slice of life' films in the style of Robert Altman's "Nashville" and "Short Cuts" and PT Anderson's "Magnolia".There are some old reviews here complaining that this is a region A disc... note that it now HAS been released in the UK, just check above that it is a region B disc.

A brilliant film from a brilliant director. There’s an entire world of fantastic films outside of Hollywood and it turns out that Hollywood mostly copies, or tries to, brilliant Asian directors. Mostly they just dumb it down for the USA audience. Do yourself a favour and watch great films.

Delighted to own this blu-ray. Product received exactly as described. One very happy customer!

It’s amazing.