The last time that I gave 5 out of 5 stars is one month ago, that movie is Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928). Since I saw that movie, I couldn't find any full-stars movie. Finally I found!What amazing movie! 2000 is the best year of the cinema, the best of Asian too! We had 2 great Hong Kong movies, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, In the Mood for Love and "Masterpiece" Taiwan, Yi Yi in the same year!Almost people, include Critics, thought that ITMFL and CTHD are the best Chinese- language movies that they've ever seen but I don't think like that. CTHD has the beautiful story, great scene, ITMFL has the great cinematography, great love but both of them have the sad ending that 2 people can't be happy... And Yi Yi, it's not only the movie, it's life, my life and your life. Many relationship that you can see in this movie that you saw or will see in your real life: family, friends, wife-husband, boyfriend-girlfriend, ex boyfriend-ex girlfriend...

Featuring in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die I was naturally going to watch this Taiwanese film regardless, and I was prepared to sit through a nearly three hour length if it turned out to be good. Basically this film is all about the Taipei family, focusing on three members of the family and their perspectives as they go through various difficult, meaningful and poignant moments in life. These are the middle-aged father N.J. (Nien-Jen Wu), young son Yang-Yang (Jonathan Chang) and teenage daughter Ting-Ting (Kelly Lee), as they start the film with a wedding, and the conclusion is a funeral. So N.J. has a job he is unhappy with, and desires to make a big deal in the Japanese video game industry, and unable to get his partners all on side he finds support from software mogul Ota (Issei Ogata), and he has former lover Sherry (Su-Yun Ko) trying to enter the fray. Son Yang-Yang is having trouble with teachers and stuff at school, and his daughter is in a love triangle with a neighbour and her troubled boyfriend. All this goes on while N.J.'s old mother in law is in a coma, his wife left for Buddhist retreat after having a midlife crisis, and overweight brother in law Ah-Di (Hsi-Sheng Chen) marries a film star and has to deal with extended family. I will be completely honest and say that I did not fully understand everything going on, because it has so many layers and situations to take in and make sense of. Also starring Elaine Jin as Min-Min, Adriene Lin as Li-Li and Pang Chang Yu as Fatty. I think the length was a slight issue for me, and it did add to the fact that I didn't know everything that was going on, but for some really good visual stuff, some interesting dialogue to see and listen to (a little English) and some social realism it is a watchable drama. Very good!

I have found another film to put into my all time greatest list, and that is Edward Yang's Yi Yi. After watching all his earlier works, this one marks that epitome of perfection, of a craftsman's finest after honing his skill through time, that most outside of Taiwan will probably remember the great director by, if not for it being easily available on DVD compared to the rest of the early ones. While those are no pushovers themselves, Yi Yi is perhaps something that can be said as complete, covering like most of Edward Yang's films, a spectrum of human emotions, here centered on an upper middle class family and unravelling its close to three hour runtime through three broad narrative threads intertwining together perfectly, with sensitivity, humanity, and poignancy even.Bookended by a wedding and a funeral, Yi Yi follows a family where each member struggles with their own personal demons, with their respective story arc taking place to address just that, and providing that slice of life from their respective perspectives. There's the father NJ (Wu Nien-Jen) who battles two fronts involving work, where his fellow company directors are seeking a new line of business through a partnership with a famed Japanese game maker but with conflicting business ethics and ideology with himself, and that of his personal life, with his family put on a thin line as he spends considerable time away in Tokyo with his first love Sherry (Ko Su-Yun), reminiscing the good old days with that hint of a temptation whether he's about to throw everything away, for one old flame.Then there's the budding first brush of love and a love triangle between his daughter Ting Tin (Kelly Lee), and their neighbour Li Li (Adriene Lin) and her boyfriend Fatty (Yu Pang Chang), where complication arise from being best of friends with Li Li, and yet filled with the dilemmas stemming from the indecision of others, offering a good contrast between two teenage girls who deal with their emotions in vastly different manners, leading to a tragic outcome. Then there's the scene stealer with Jonathan Chang's Yang Yang, the youngest son in the family who's having a horrid time in school, being the thorn in the eye of a female prefect hell bent on making his life miserable. His story arc is perhaps one that brings us back to our own childhood, with nary a care in the world, and living life in quite cavalier terms with various shenanigans, some comical of course, and like most children, live in their own world through the picking up of a hobby, and yet having lessons to impart to adults.There are minor subplots galore in this film, with support characters providing that rich tapestry for Yi Yi, which is also subtitled A One and a Two, strokes in the Chinese language that identical strokes horizontally turns the character One into a Two, sequentially one after another, like a musical beat promising a grand oeuvre to come from Edward Yang the conductor. There's the comatose grandmother whose recuperation of sorts at home brings about some stress to Ting Ting because of her guilt conscious, and that of NJ's wife Min Min (Elaine Jen), who disappears mid way into the film from a depressive breakdown. And Yang Yang's uncle Ah Di (Chen Hsi Sheng) who has to juggle placating his wife Xiao Yan (Xiao Shu Shen) toward the presence of his ex Yun Yun (Zeng Xin Yi) whom he gravitates to given the ups and downs in his financial status.In some ways Yi Yi is a film that puts the spotlight on the various aspects of romance, about the first love who had proved elusive, of past romances and the examination of What Ifs. There's a scene which was expertly and brilliantly edited and intertwined between NJ's arc and his daughter's relationship, hinting at a possible repeat of events that happened one generation earlier, that really hammered home the eventual outcome from a parallel under very uncanny circumstances. This theme may not be new in Edward's repertoire of films, but the way it was handled here just made it very much heartfelt, inevitably allowing us to pass judgement on the characters involved, though in no ways objectively done.It's three hours long, but it's the three hours you will not want to end as you get pulled into the family issues, and find yourself engaged on the emotional level and feel that sense of belonging with the central family, brought to life through wonderful performances all round, from the little Jonathan Chang to the veteran Wu Nien-Jen. Edward Yang's voice cannot be more pronounced through each of the characters put into the film, revisiting themes and issues discussed in earlier films, or in this one, I really liked how he crafted Ota (Issei Ogata) the Japanese game maker, with dialogue that really made plenty of sense, dispensing keen observations and life lessons to impart from the filmmaker.For a film about life and its struggles in general, Yi Yi comes up tops, and I felt it had inspired other similar films that attempted to examine urban family life across a full spectrum of emotions, such as that in Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Tokyo Sonata very recently. Yi Yi is without a doubt one of Edward Yang's greatest and one of my personal favourites to date, and is a film that has to be experienced at least once by any film buff, and be prepared to be emotionally blown away by a filmic masterpiece. A must watch!

In the early new century, late Taiwanese director Edward Yang broke out from under the radar with his epic modern masterpiece and last film Yi yi (2000), a tender refreshing subtle drama centred around a domestic family. Remaining one of the most critically acclaimed films of the century, it's a shame that Yang left us before making another film but did broaden eyes to his other obscure works such as A Brighter Summer Day (1991) and The Terrorizers (1986); as all the practiced methods in these films come to their highest point of intimacy in Yi yi. Shuffling between a range of moods and themes, the focus and basic premise of Yi yi is a middle-class family in Taipei over the course of one year, beginning at a wedding and ending at a funeral. The characters disband and we follow each subplot discovering and developing each of them; the father (N.J.) spends time with his long lost first love, imagining what his life could have been and studying his past behaviour; the mother (Min-Min) who feels trapped in her status of housewife; the daughter (Ting-Ting) who discovers first love; and the son (Yang-Yang) who evaluates his surroundings. Other prominent characters include the husband and bride of the afore mentioned wedding and the soon to be deceased.The pivotal theme of Yi yi is in general the love we give and receive all throughout life – although this is not demonstrated in any chronological order within the film. First, there's the love a baby receives (which the bride from the wedding carries throughout the film) from the whole family and the parents – of which this mutual and constant love remains for eternity. Then as a young child, Yang-Yang, he just begins to notice girls and the effect they have on him. His sister plays the teenager representation, who seeks the opposite gender for sexual attention; a supposed illusion of love. As an adult, or when maturity is apparently complete and they're getting married, there's the love from the family and the strong attraction between the couple themselves. Later in middle age, when possibly this appeal fades (as presented by the fact N.J. and Min-Min take some time apart) there's the assumed love from ones children, peers and the sensation of reminiscing past 'loves'. Once one reaches old age there's the love from and to the whole family. Another theme is the representation of modern family life, working on superstition, traditions and behaviour. This being shown by the fact the entire family lives near or together, especially when one is weak. Also, the wedding is intentionally set on a particular date just because it's a supposedly lucky day on the almanac calendar (also giving their child a 'lucky' name). It also shows how materials and possessions are useless without any form of love.N.J. is one of my favourite and most fascinating characters in cinema. He's passive, understanding and rarely aggressive; even stereotyped by his colleagues as the 'honest-looking type'. For example, when he witnesses an unfriendly brawl due to an unwelcome guest, he avoids joining in and waits for it to calm down before considering making his entrance. But by this disturbance, he feels the occasion is ruined and kindly refuses to join though he doesn't judge any of the people involved. When Yang-Yang prefers to eat McDonalds rather than food at the wedding he indulges and makes no fuss. After this particular scene, he encounters an ex-girlfriend by an elevator who confronts him for standing her up at a date several years ago. N.J. does not respond. Throughout a much later set meeting in the third act, we discover that N.J. was in fact the nervous type, which leads us to evaluate his current behaviour against his old one – there's the use of parallels by having his study of his past behaviour over his daughter and her boyfriend's first date, following these patterns. Though he has reached a new stage in his life and he's finally comfortable with the woman, he doesn't feel the attraction. When it comes to business, he is very calculating, understanding what to do but when he feels pressure he escapes to music. Plus he is co-operative but not dominating.Due to all these themes and the effect of personal impact it had on me, I refer to this film as the most enlightening and life-affirming film of all-time for me. This is mostly because the film has entirely convinced me that its theories are true and they are very comforting and therapeutic, despite the equal balance of happiness and sadness. According to the director, Yi yi literally translates to "A One and a Two…", like the phrase bands say before their performance. It's as if everyone is only getting ready and this is one big rehearsal. Or it is one big irony because, as Edward Yang has stated; 'few things in life are as simple as ones and twos", unlike the situations in the film. It is an incredibly rewarding and satisfying experience, if emotionally draining. There's also a very reassuring quote from the film I love; "My uncle says… we live three times as long since man invented movies. It means movies give us twice what we get from daily life. For example, murder. We never killed anyone, but we all know what it's like to kill. That's what we get from the movies." This is the natural beauty of film and my inspiration. I think the thought of this film could carry me throughout my whole life.One of my favourite films of all-time.10/10