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

Directed by
Edward Yang

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Edward Yang		written by

Produced by
Shinya Kawai	....	associate producer
Osamu Kunota	....	associate producer
Michiyo Satô	....	assistant producer
Naoko Tsukeda	....	associate producer
Wei-yen Yu	....	associate producer

Original Music by
Kai-Li Peng

Cinematography by
Wei-han Yang

Film Editing by
Bo-Wen Chen

Production Design by
Peng

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Yu-Hui Wang	....	assistant director
Shih-Ping Yang	....	assistant director

Sound Department
Du-Che Tu	....	sound (as Du-Chih Du)

Other crew
Tony Rayns	....	subtitles: English

Production Companies

• AtomFilms
• Nemuru Otoko Seisaku Iinkai
• Omega Project
• Pony Canyon

Distributors

• Criterion Collection, The (2006) (USA) (DVD)
• Diaphana Films (2000) (France) (theatrical)
• Dutch FilmWorks (DFW) (2007) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• E Stars Films (2004) (China) (TV)
• Filmfreak Distributie (2002) (Netherlands) (VHS)
• Fox Lorber (2001) (USA) (DVD)
• Golem Distribución (2001) (Spain) (theatrical)
• Kuzui Enterprises (2000) (Japan) (theatrical)
• Madman Entertainment (2003) (Australia) (DVD)
• Národní Filmový Archiv (NFA) (2002) (Czech Republic) (theatrical)
• Omuro Pictures (2000) (Japan) (theatrical)
• Upstream Pictures (2001) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• WinStar Cinema (2000) (USA) (theatrical) (subtitled)
• trigon-film (2004) (Switzerland) (DVD) (subtitled)

Also Known As:

Yan Yan - Natsu no omoide (Japan)
Yi yi: A One and a Two... (International: English title)
1+2 (Finland) [fi]
Eine Eins und eine Zwei (Germany) (festival title) [de]
I raz, i dwa (Poland) [pl]
Yi yi (Spain) [es]
Yi yi (France) [fr]
Yi yi - E uno... e due! (Italy) [it]
Yi yi - ensam tillsammans (Sweden) [sv]

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:

Chosen by "Les Cahiers du cinéma" (France) as one of the ten best pictures of 2000 (#7, tied with The Virgin Suicides (1999)).

Movie Connections:

References Analyze This (1999)

Soundtrack:

All My Best

Soap opera in excelsis

I don't think the term "soap opera" existed before the widespread growth of TV when it started to be used to define a genre of entertainment that dramatised the everyday lives of a cross section of interrelated characters that could theoretically go on for ever. The formula for the success of the longest running, the British "Coronation Street" and "Eastenders" for instance, is self-identification, the depiction in a heightened dramatic form of the sort of problems we all live with, bringing a degree of comfort and assurance to the audience watching a fictionalisation of its collective angst. When we liken a finite form such as a film to "soap" we tend to use the term in a derogatory sense isofar as we see it as dramatising trivia. However we must be careful about this as there have been examples of very high cinematic art that conform to the conventions of soap opera, "The Best Years of our Lives" for instance in the '40s, the German "Heimat" a few years back and more recently Edward Yang's "A One and a two". It is that very element of everyday anxiety viewed with such perception and truth that makes the Taiwanese film so compelling. Yang has moved away from the youth violence of "A Brighter Summer Day". His middle class family is involved with commerce and careers. However noone has an easy time of it. Each member of the family is plagued in their different ways by their inadequacy in coping with the infirmity of their eldest member. At the same time the father is troubled by his work and the complication of the reappearance in his life of a woman he met many years ago, his wife is seeking spiritual advice from a Buddhist guru, his teenage daughter becomes the butt of romantic jealousy from the girl next door. But it is the 8 year old son who seems most able to come to terms with the vicissitudes of life. He survives the spiteful taunts of his little girl peers and a bullying schoolmaster. His defence is an enquiring mind which he applies to his surroundings with a Kaspar Hauser fortitude and innocence. We already know that if any of these characters will be a survivor it is this youngest. Yang shoots the film with an almost Ozu-like purity, preferring long held shots rather than camera movements, although unlike Ozu he does not make a fetish of this. Often we see action through windows but not at a distance as in "Rear Window" so everything has an immediacy. It will need a few more viewings to assess whether "A One and a Two" is on the same level as Yang's earlier "A Brighter Summer Day". At the moment something tells me that is does not quite measure up to that savage masterpiece. Its very gentleness could be the reason, although I recognise this is hardly a valid argument. After three viewings it remains for me a rather elusive work, compelling in its way but curiously difficult to evaluate.