339 Yi Yi

[manicsounds]

yup, its there on mine too.

[TheGodfather]

The movie`s director Edward Yang died last friday of cancer, from wich he suffered for 7 years, in his home in Beverly Hills.
He was 59 years old...

[Macintosh]

The movie`s director Edward Yang died last friday of cancer, from wich he suffered for 7 years, in his home in Beverly Hills.
He was 59 years old...

maybe now his work will become more widely avaible.

[Floyd]

I thought this film was around 90 minutes so you can imagine my surprise when it seemed to keep on going.. and going... and well it went on forever it seemed. The first few minutes of how the interaction was shown got me excited for what was to come but in the end nothing really seemed to come out of it for me. It was a disappointment. I did like seeing the reflection shots for awhile but it became a bit overdone.

[Anthony]

Edward Yang died last friday of cancer, from wich he suffered for 7 years, in his home in Beverly Hills.
He was 59 years old...

This is truly sad news.

[exte]

Yeah, I was shocked to read this, too. Sigh. Another great filmmaker bites the dust. I hate to say it, but I fear the same for the 70's filmmakers... I cannot believe Spielberg is over sixty, you know? It's a shame that Yang only got 7 films while he was here.

[malcolm1980]

R.I.P. 59 is way too young to die.

[What A Disgrace]

A terrible shame. Made even more painful by one of my first reactions to this film; that Yang must be one of the truly bright stars of cinema's coming future. And that it happened so close to my 25th birthday.

[Matango]

Very sad. Just learned about it from the CC website. Amazing how they never miss the chance to do an obituary/promo combination.

[exte]

Amazing how they never miss the chance to do an obituary/promo combination.

Ouch.

[FilmFanSea]

Amazing how they never miss the chance to do an obituary/promo combination.

Ouch.

I see less greedy motives at play. In the case of Edward Yang, I suspect many otherwise knowledgeable moviegoers had never heard of him or his movies prior to reading his obituary or Manohla Dargis' overview of his career in the Times. It is natural for the death of a great (but little-known) artist to stimulate curiosity and demand for his art. If a small blurb on Criterion's website brings new viewers to Yang's films, I'm delighted. It would have been disingenuous for Criterion NOT to have mentioned its release of Yi yi in the process.

[zedz]

If flogging Yi Yi brings us even an inch closer to a DVD release of A Brighter Summer Day (with the remaining features in a tidy Eclipse box, thanks very much), it is a Good Thing. Yang's demise, on the other hand, is the worst movie-related news this year: he was an invisible giant of world cinema.

[Antoine Doinel]

Amazing how they never miss the chance to do an obituary/promo combination.

Ouch.

I see less greedy motives at play. In the case of Edward Yang, I suspect many otherwise knowledgeable moviegoers had never heard of him or his movies prior to reading his obituary or Manohla Dargis' overview of his career in the Times. It is natural for the death of a great (but little-known) artist to stimulate curiosity and demand for his art. If a small blurb on Criterion's website brings new viewers to Yang's films, I'm delighted. It would have been disingenuous for Criterion NOT to have mentioned its release of Yi yi in the process.

Exactly. And as someone who used to work for an e-commerce reseller, let me tell you, anytime a filmmaker or musician at any level passes away, there is an immediate interest in their work. While it would be nice if Yang received this kind of recognition during his lifetime, it's heartening that his passing is gaining attention in the mainstream press and will at least turn some new viewers on to his work.

[colinr0380]

This is a nice article about the film, with an interesting comparison to A Brighter Summer Day:

[quote]Towards the end [of Brighter Summer Day], Yang piles up the incidents so much that he risks melodrama; his transitions from one climax to another are shaky, not as precisely controlled as the early half of the film--or, for that matter, as the climaxes in Yi-Yi. Yi-Yi shows no such shakiness in the course of its three hours--throughout the film you feel Yang in command of his material. But Yi-Yi also doesn't have that sense of vast forces on the move, of history captured and brought to thrilling life. “Yi-Yiâ€

[feckless boy]

Wonderful film, as far as you can get from the (hyper)intensified-continuity of the Bourne-series.

I can't help to think that this is one of the films in the collection that would benefit most from HD-treatment. It'll probably be a long wait...

[Mise En Scene]

For those that saw Yi Yi in theatres (festival circuit or limited run) from 2000 to 2002, how close are the colors on the Criterion to those theatrical prints?

My God, the colors on the Criterion are so vibrant. The glass reflections are stunning. Making an already rich film richer.

Also, has anyone heard or read anything that Hou Hsiao-hsien has said about Yang's passing? Can't find anything on Google.

[Murdoch]

I recently picked up the CC edition of this, my initial viewing was off of the Fox Lorber release which I only vaguely recalled since I tried to view the entire film in one sitting but was constantly interrupted and was forced to pause the film, stretching its running time to several more hours. I was left with a very vague impression of the film.

Anyway, I sat down with it last night and watched it completely through, no interruptions, and gained a much better appreciation of the film. I found it interesting how each of the film's narrative segments - the son at school, the daughter and her love triangle, the father and his failing business/old love interest, etc. - seemed to be individual films in themselves. The family seemed to exist in a very normal way, many films I have seen show families as always together and that the primary life of a family member exists while he/she is bonding with their family and any non-family members are something somewhat foreign. In Yi Yi this convention was not present, and it created a far more realistic vision of family - at least from my vantage point - since each family member leads their own separate life that, while influenced by family, is not bound by it. I never felt the desire to focus on one narrative segment over the other, since I found all the characters both compelling and sympathetic.

However, I was put off by a few things. The "dream" that the daughter has of speaking with the healed grandmother felt unneeded, the film exists solely within the reality of life, but the dream added a sort of fantasy element that felt out of place, as if Yang was trying to emphasize the relationship the daughter had with her grandmother in that single moment, despite not having given much emotional gravitas to their relationship in the rest of the film. Also, I don't know how I feel about the murder, I remember on my initial viewing being thrown by it since it comes out of the blue. It felt like Yang was tacking it on to have a powerful ending to the boy's relationship with the daughter, but I would've have found it much more powerful had the relationship ended with the scene where the boy walks away from her angry after breaking up with her, even though that would have left his reasoning for doing so unexplained. If someone could wax poetic on the meaning of the murder I would appreciate it, I definitely missed something.

[Caged Horse]

Thanks to this wonderful film I finally have an ideal answer to the question, "Which is better, Magnolia or Short Cuts?" Neither.

[psufootball07]

I really enjoyed Yi Yi, but with the ways in which Yang visually focuses on an image seems reminiscent of Fassbinder or Ozu's signature style. Give me Ali Fear Eats the Soul anyday, because somehow it remains a more poignant reminder than Yi Yi does.

[Donald Brown]

A more poignant reminder of what? And how does one focus on an image other than visually?

[psufootball07]

Well at least Fassbinder was widely creative in maintaing focus on the characters, and the scene longer than usual. Yi Yi has elements of this, but is not as "effective" in getting a response from the audience through this stylistic and technical element.

[Rich Malloy]

Well at least Fassbinder was widely creative in maintaing focus on the characters, and the scene longer than usual. Yi Yi has elements of this, but is not as "effective" in getting a response from the audience through this stylistic and technical element.

Well, Joe Paterno finds your comparison of Fassbinder's gloriously theatrical melodramas to the distinctly low-key Taiwanese style of Yang to be simply perplexing.

He said, "So I've got this kid who's gonna be a great quarterback for us, but could never make the team as a linebacker. But even though we're known as 'linebacker U.', we also need good slotbacks, left tackles, weak-side corners, and ... yes ... quarterbacks. And, much like the Nittany Lions will always need quarterbacks as well as linebackers, the cinematic community needs its Hou Hsiao-hsiens, Tsai Ming-liangs, and Edward Yangs as well as its Douglas Sirks, RW Fassbinders, and Francois Ozons."

Coach also remarked on your earlier statement that Yang's film "seems reminiscent of Fassbinder or Ozu's signature style".

"As though Fassbinder and Ozu's films have anything approaching a shared 'signature style'," he sighed, before adding "of course, Ozu had a profound effect on the short-lived Taiwanese New Wave, but what in hell does Fassbinder have to do with anything? I mean, wtf...?"

At this point, he slapped his forehead with an open palm and sat there staring at me, flummoxed and unblinking, as a bright red welt slowly swelled up into his hairline...

[psufootball07]

Now, you must know Joe. No but seriously I liked the film, it didn't resonate as strong as an Ozu film or even those of fellow Chinese Wong Kar-Wai.

Yi Yi is really a really a unique journey that somehow leaves me un-affected, asides from that line by the young son at the end. The relationship aspect of the film was intriguing to watch at times, but ultimately left the desire of observing pleasure on screen unsatisfied. I am also somewhat unsure as to how often I would return to this film, I own it and have seen it 3 times, not sure how many times the fans of this film on here have seen it.

[colinr0380]

Announced on Blu-Ray

[John Edmond]

Yip Yip!

I just hope they didn't prepare it for a dual release with A Brighter Summer Day before the potential for lengthy delays with A Brighter Summer Day led them to to release it early.