Yi Yi [Criterion Collection]

Director: Edward Yang Edward Yang

Overview

Master Taiwanese director Edward Yang spins this intricate and complex yarn about life's everyday crises. The film focuses on N.J. Jian (Wu Nien-Jen, a noted writer/director in his own right); his wife, Min-Min (Elaine Jin); and their two children, teenager Ting-Ting (Kelly Lee) and young Yang-Yang (Jonathan Chang). Their middle-class existence seems stable and secure until a series of incidents throws all of their lives out of kilter. The misfortunes start at the wedding of Min-Min's ne'er-do-well brother, Ah-Di (Chen Xisheng), when his jilted ex-girlfriend Yun-Yun (Tseng Hsin-yi) bursts into the proceedings and lambastes the bride. Upset by the ruckus and feeling unwell, Min-Min's mother goes home early only to suffer a stroke and slip into a coma. After the wedding, N.J. runs into his first love, Sherry (Ke Suyun), who is married to a rich American. This chance encounter shakes N.J. to his very foundations, forcing him to reevaluate his life. At the same time, N.J.'s computer company deliberates on whether or not to collaborate with a renowned Japanese games designer, Ota (Issey Ogata), sending N.J. to Japan to negotiate a contract. Confronted by her mother's coma, Min-Min also takes stock of her life and finds it lacking. On the brink of a nervous breakdown, she suddenly joins a religious retreat. In Japan, N.J. warms to his potential business partner Ota, spending long evenings discussing life and love in hip Tokyo jazz clubs. There, N.J. also meets up with Sherry; they relive old memories and flirt with infidelity. At the same, Ting-Ting, who quietly blames herself for her grandmother's coma, learns her first hard lessons about love, while Yang-Yang causes trouble at school and wrestles with the truths of the adult world. This film won the Golden Palm for Best Direction at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival and was an official selection for the 2000 Toronto Film Festival.

Product Details

Release Date:	07/11/2006
UPC:	0715515018623
Original Release:	2000
Source:	Criterion Collection
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Stereo]
Language:	English
Time:	2:53:00

Special Features

New, restored high-definition digital transfer; Audio commentary by writer-director Edward Yang and noted Asian-cinema critic Tony Rayns; New video interview with Rayns about Yang and the New Taiwan Cinema movement; Original English subtitle translation by Yang and Rayns ; U.S. theatrical trailer; A new essay by Kent Jones and notes from the director

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Nien-Jen Wu	NJ Jian
Jonathan Chang	Yang-Yang,Fatty
Elaine Jin	Min-Min
Ke Suyun	Sherry
Chen Xisheng	A-Di
Kelly Lee	Ting-Ting,Piano Bar Pianist
Adrian Lin	Lili
Issey Ogata	Mr. Ota,Ota
Tang Ruyun	Grandma
Michael Tao	Da-Da
Xiao Shushen	Xiao Yan
Xu Shuyuan	Lili's Mother
Zeng Xinyi	Yun-Yun
Xiao Sushen	Xiao Yan
Li Yongfeng	Migo
Jin Shihui	Nancy
Wu Jie	Wu Jie
Shu Guozhi	Shu Ge
Dai Liren	Liren
You Meiyun	NJ's Neighbor
You Qidong	Xiao Yan's Uncle
Ke Yulun	Young Soldier
Liu Liangzuo	Dean
Chen Lihua	Lili's English Tutor
Chen Yiwen	Policeman
Song Shaoqing	Young Banker
Luo Bei-an	Boss Huang
Danny Deng	A-Di's Friend
Fan Reijun	A-Di's Friend
Cheng Jianxiong	A-Di's Friend
Zhen Yuancheng	A-Di's Friend
Cai Ruying	A-Di's Friend
Sun Fajun	A-Di's Friend
Jay Miao	A-Di's Friend
Tang Congsheng	Punk at NY Bagel Cafe
Wang Qizan	Punk at NY Bagel Cafe
Li Jianchang	Punk at NY Bagel Cafe
Tsuda Kenjiro	Robata Restaurant Waiter
Wu Weining	The `Concubine'
Zhang Huiling	Huiling
Xu Guiying	NJ's Secretary
Allen Lu	Mrs. Jiang's Boyfriend
Yang Shiping	Grandma's Doctor
Ye Ziyan	Grandma's Doctor
Yang Jinhua	Doctor's Wife
Li Wanyun	Xiao Yan's Assistant
Lin Xiaowei	Xiao Yan's Assistant
Wu Yiting	The Baby
Xu Wenjuan	Da-Da's Wife
Wang Zhengkai	Security Guard
Xie Nianzu	Policeman
Chen Shiqi	Yang-Yang's Classmate
Xiang Guangting	Yang-Yang's Classmate
Lin Yanchun	Yang-Yang's Classmate
Su-Yun Ko	Sherry Chang-Breitner
Ru-Yun Tang	la grand-mère
Pang Chang Yu	Fatty
Hsi-Sheng Chen	A-Di
Wu Nien-Chen	N.J.
Hsu Shu Yuan	Actor
Shu-shen Hsiao	Actor
Shu-Yuan Hsu	Actor
Hsin-Yi Tseng	Actor
Kaili Peng	Composer

Technical Credits

Edward Yang

Edward Yang	Director,Screenwriter,Casting
Kawai Shinya	Producer
Tsukeda Naoko	Producer
Duu-chih Tu	Sound Effects
Naoko Tsukeda	Producer
Du Duzhi	Sound/Sound Designer

Scene Index

Disc #1 -- Yi Yi
1. Double Happiness [3:46]
2. The Jians [4:10]
3. Luckiest Day [7:48]
4. Family Emergency [3:55]
5. Old Man [2:58]
6. Honest Talk [6:33]
7. Harsh Realities [8:57]
8. Growth Potential [4:59]
9. Man Trouble [5:19]
10. First Time [9:19]
11. Every Day [3:27]
12. Half-Truths [10:17]
13. Art Appreciation [2:46]
14. Missed Signals [5:28]
15. Cleaned Out [3:44]
16. New Beginnings [7:13]
17. Precious Harmony [4:39]
18. Lucky Guy [5:44]
19. Serious Interest [3:23]
20. "His Music" [2:23]
21. Finding Ways [8:35]
22. Getting Ready [4:21]
23. "Only You" [5:42]
24. Two Keys [9:08]
25. No Tricks [7:32]
26. Back Home [4:13]
27. In Alignment [4:13]
28. "So Unfair" [4:08]
29. Peaceful Appearance [7:46]
30. Same Things [2:49]
31. Already Known [7:36]
1. First Gathering [3:46]
2. Crucial Moment [4:10]
3. Taipei Phenomenon [7:48]
4. Dramatic Device [3:55]
5. Dawning Awareness [2:58]
6. Only Seven [6:33]
7. Terrible Guilt [8:57]
8. Subtitling Ota [4:59]
9. Creating Personality [5:19]
10. Speaking English [9:19]
11. Remarkable Performance [3:27]
12. Red Light [10:17]
13. Very Chinese [2:46]
14. Leaving Marks [5:28]
15. Cultural Difference [3:44]
16. Two Approaches [7:13]
17. Spontaneous Performances [4:39]
18. Another Side [5:44]
19. Political Satire [3:23]
20. Amazing Similarities [2:23]
21. Reflective Art [8:35]
22. Story Foundation [4:21]
23. Location Shooting [5:42]
24. Visual Style [9:08]
25. Talented Actors [7:32]
26. Doing Business [4:13]
27. Explaining Superstitions [4:13]
28. Taiwan News [4:08]
29. Final Reconciliation [7:46]
30. Emotional Resilience [2:49]
31. Positive Ending [7:36]
1. Complex History [2:37]
2. No Audience [1:07]
3. New Directors [2:01]
4. Looking Backward [1:26]
5. Rethinking Style [3:18]
6. Taiwan Now [1:08]
7. Intellectual Approach [2:36]
8. No Industry [:36]

Menu

Disc #1 -- Yi Yi
   Play the Movie
   Chapters
   Color Bars
   Commentary
      Commentary: Off
      Commentary: On
      Index
      Color Bars
   Everyday Realities
      Play
      Index
   Trailer
   Subtitles
      Subtitles: On
      Subtitles: Off

Editorial Reviews

As exhibited by his sprawling 1991 masterpiece, A Brighter Summer Day, Edward Yang can combine a poet's eye for metaphor and imagery with a novelist's sense of detail and character. Yi Yi is a domestic drama that has the sweep of an epic and the fine acuity of a haiku. Yang's story unfolds effortlessly, populated with disquieting coincidences and sudden reversals, capturing the ebb and flow of real life. Yet Yi Yi's complex narrative seamlessly creates unexpected parallels between characters that simply could not exist in a standard linear narrative. In one sequence, Yang cuts between Ting-Ting's tentative steps toward romance with a classmate and N.J.'s guilt-wracked rendezvous with his first love Sherry. Whereas A Brighter Summer Day largely concerned itself with the lives of Taiwan's disaffected youth, this film speaks most eloquently about the difficulties of middle age. The most overtly existential of Yang's work, the film shows how N.J.'s bourgeois sense of stability can be utterly overturned by a single chance encounter, creating one of the richest portraits of a midlife crisis ever to be committed to celluloid. The underlying themes of change and uncertainty tap directly into Taiwan's overall national psyche during the late '90s -- a period marked by a go-go economy that went south after the Asian financial crisis of 1997 and an increasingly tenuous political existence thanks to mainland China's public chest-beating. As the rumpled patriarch N.J., Wu Nian-Jen delivers a finely wrought performance, as does the ever-talented Elaine Jin, who plays Min-Min. Funny, sometimes shocking, and always poignant, Yi Yi is a monumental work by one of the towering figures of world cinema.

All Movie Guide - Jonathan Crow

Yi Yi....is the work of a master in full command of the resources of his art. Movies are an inherently, sometimes cheaply emotional medium, but it takes a lot to make a grown critic cry. As I watched the final credits of Yi Yi through bleary eyes, I struggled to identify the overpowering feeling that was making me tear up. Was it grief? Joy? Mirth? Yes, I decided, it was all of these. But mostly, it was gratitude.

New York Times - A.O. Scott

Yang sees this father, mother, teenage daughter, eight-year-old son, and grandmother as the five fingers of a single hand, each one gradually becoming paralyzed and isolated...More subtly, he hints at their separateness from one another by rarely showing them together and by emphasizing their lack of rapport and intimacy at the infrequent family gatherings, including the stiff poses for wedding photographs that open the picture and the almost equally stiff groupings at a funeral at the end.
It wasn't surprising that Edward Yang got the prize for best direction at Cannes last year -- he's been making masterful films in Taiwan for almost 20 years. ..But the biggest surprise of all came when the National Society of Film Critics...named Yi Yi the best film of the year -- the first time the organization had given such an honor to a foreign-language film since...1986. One can safely wager that this wasn't some backhanded way of granting Yang belated recognition, because most of the NSFC's members remain as ignorant of his six previous features as the general public. Instead I think it signified a growing perception that what's happening in the world of movies isn't necessarily what we read about in mainstream magazines or hear about on radio or TV.

Chicago Reader - Jonathan Rosenbaum