Yi yi (2000)

User Rating:

7.8/10   

Director:

Edward Yang

Writer:

Edward Yang (written by)

Release Date:

20 September 2000 (France)

Genre:

Drama | Music | Romance

Plot:

Each member of a family in Taipei asks hard questions about life's meaning as they live through everyday quandaries...

Plot Keywords:

Love | Coma | Taipei | First Love | Business

Awards:

9 wins & 11 nominations

Cast

Nien-Jen Wu	...	N.J.
Elaine Jin	...	Min-Min
Issei Ogata	...	Ota
Kelly Lee	...	Ting-Ting
Jonathan Chang	...	Yang-Yang
Hsi-Sheng Chen	...	Ah-Di
Su-Yun Ko	...	Sherry
Shu-shen Hsiao	...	Hsiao Yen
Adriene Lin	...	Li-Li
Pang Chang Yu	...	Fatty
Ru-Yun Tang	...	NJ's Mother
Shu-Yuan Hsu
Hsin-Yi Tseng	...	Yun-Yun
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Yiwen Chen
An-an Hsu
Yue-Lin Ko	...	The Soldier (as Ke Yulun)
Kai-Li Peng	...	Cellist in cello concert scene
Congsheng Tang	...	Blue Shirt
Edward Yang	...	Pianist in cello concert scene

Also Known As:

Yan Yan - Natsu no omoide (Japan)
Yi yi: A One and a Two... (International: English title)

Runtime:

173 min

Country:

Taiwan | Japan

Language:

Mandarin | Taiwanese | Hokkien | English | Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Portugal:M/12 | Finland:S | France:U | Germany:6 | Hong Kong:IIA | South Korea:All | Spain:13 | Sweden:7 | Switzerland:10 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:10 (canton of Vaud) | UK:15 | USA:Not Rated | Singapore:PG

Company:

AtomFilms

Trivia:

Issei Ogata's English dialog was re-written and even improvised during the shooting by Ogata himself. Yang wanted to have his Japanese character speaking realistically, not in the stereotypical manner Japanese characters in English-speaking films often do.

Movie Connections:

References Wild Wild West (1999)

Soundtrack:

Cello Sonata No.1 in F-Major, Op 5-1

Kaleidoscope

The action takes place in Taipei like it could take place in any other modern town of this world because the dramas that occur in our urban bourgeois society are the same everywhere. In fact we see here a very westernized society in terms of values and living standards both material and moral. The movie develops itself in a succession of apparently incoherent sequences which nevertheless are bound by a conducting wire that has much to do with life in itself concerning a chain of different generations, from the dying grandmother to the small boy who is not the less important character here. This succession reminds us of Godard's movies though this one and the sequences themselves are full of meaning. Even the silences they contain are very eloquent sometimes. The scenery is usually very neat, clear and quiet in terms of furniture, urban views and people and camera movements which doesn't make the story less dramatic at all. Particularly interesting and very well shown is the counterpoint between the love meetings of teenagers and the meeting of the fourtyish couple of the former lovers who meet for the first time again 30 years after their courtship had been broken in dramatic circumstances. Problems concerning the meaning of life and the real nature of love are shown mainly through the very incisive dialogues making us thinking once more that love is a much more complicated thing than romanticism depicts. It has features and ups and downs that remain unexplained sometimes. This movie is one of the most significant ones I have seen in which concerns human nature and its conflict with the values of modern bourgeois society on the one hand and also universal values of all times on the other. We watch here problems of children and teenagers but also of adults either marital, professional or spiritual. And all this told in a smooth and quiet way portraying normal people leading normal lives. This movie presents itself indeed like a kaleidoscope of real nowadays life.