I really tried to understand this movie. I am a movie buff but never got it. I tried, I really did. I think at times the image on the screen frozen didn't do it for me. I kept waiting to see what it was all about. I thought it was a very depressing movie, nobody was happy, there was nothing redeeming, not even when NJ rekindled his relationship with his old flame.
shareI think no scene was unneeded, but i do think many of theses scenes could have been shorter, hence reducing the whole for a good thirty minutes.
To me, the film is a very good insight of Taiwanese nowadays life (I went there three times and it felt really like that).
I think the last scene with Yang Yang is priceless, it was well worth he wole length. It is like in real life : usually the best things come out true efforts.
Most of esay things are worthless.
I'm glad i'm not the only one who thought this movie sucks. People think that just because a movie strays from typical Hollywood storylines, and has cheesy piano music throughout, and has subtitles, and comes from another culture...that somehow all of these things mean it must be more "artistic", and more "meaningful", and can "teach us something". Well I watch movies for entertainment, not for religious sermons or philosophy or boring family melodrama.
shareIts length is reasonable, it's never boring, there's nothing in particular to get or not get about it and it's extremely well shot. But it's unrelentingly sombre and one-note, it's harmed in a few places by cheesy piano music, there are at least four too many melt-downs and it exceeds a movie's maximum weeping capacity about half-way through. It is beautiful and contains powerful truth, it has a few great characters (it could've used a lot more of Ota) and scenes, but it is negative beyond reason.
shareYi Yi isn't for everybody. To me it's one of my favorites movies ever, beautiful, introspective and it leaves you thinking about the questions that it raises about life and relationships.
If your looking for a movie like the superhero craze we currently have where there is a good guy, bad guy and in the end the good guy triumphs Yi Yi might not be your cup of tea. To me it's like the idea of eating at McDonalds vs Nobu (a very upscale restaurant). If all you've been eating your entire life is McDonalds and then you go to Nobu you might think the same thing. "I don't get it, why is this so great." The tastes are more subtle, mature and different.
To me Yi Yi is like Nobu, the enjoyment doesn't come from some big revelation a la Sixth Sense but from the revealing the lives of these people in a subtle and mature way without explosions, superpowers, or car crashes.
it's a typical 6/10 movie for me, not bad but i don't have the urge to see it again
so many movies, so little time
If you're looking for a basic, sugary, sentimental film trope about family, then Edward Yang's Yi Yi is not for you. The film is observational, introspective and far more enigmatic than most films based in the home setting dealing with contrasting characters that could easily be explained with boring exposition dialogue and filler plot points.
While you may dismiss it as being cold and empty, the film asks you to observe and engage with the film. There are brilliant Asian filmmakers like Ozu and hou hsiao hsien who reward their viewers with their work because of their artistic thematic style of visual communication and subtle details.