Overlong and overrated, but with flashes of greatness

This film has featured prominently on many of the "best of the 2000s so far" lists that have become all the rage recently (although it's debatable if this is really a 2000s movie at all), so I thought I'd better check it out.

I found myself, oddly enough, agreeing with both the five star and the one star reviews people posted on Netflix. First, I agree with complaints that their DVD copy is of poor quality: if I could see the Criterion blu-ray and the interesting looking cinematography were able to come through better on my large TV, I might rate it higher.

I also however agree with a 1-star review that "just because it's realistic doesn't mean it's interesting". Some of the shots that are held for an eternity, showing two people not speaking could definitely be effective in a character study art film that clocks in at 90 or 100 minutes. At three hours long, these long shots cry out for trimming, as did subplots with a brother in law and his debts, and everything to do with the business deals, except for the evening out with the Japanese game designer.

And while there were many quietly powerful scenes, there were others that were too histrionic and melodramatic to qualify as realistic. [SPOILER] (Would a realist film show an earlier featured character on the news for a sordid murder?) Maybe this reflects Taiwanese culture, but it seemed people were either quiet and stoic or shrieking.

And the film certainly deserves to be docked for manipulative "schmuck bait" scenes where they make the audience think something terrible has happened and then take it back. [SPOILERS] In one case we are strongly led to believe a character has killed himself when he declares he has nothing left to live for, and then his wife finds his unmoving body in a tightly closed room smelling of gas, and wails over him for some time. But then we are subsequently shown that--surprise--he has fully recovered, apparently without even requiring hospitalization. Similarly, sweet and adorable Yang Yang decides he wants to swim like the girl he is crushing on, so he goes to a swimming pool with no one else present, and jumps in the deep end. The camera holds for a long time and we don't see him come up. But then a while later he is shown coming through the front door of his family's home, soaking wet but none the worse for wear. That is a cheat!