Yi Yi

Yi Yi is an award filming Taiwanese film from 2000. Yi Yi is about the Jiang family seen through three different perspectives. The father NJ, the son Yang-Yang, and the daughter, Ting-Ting. The starts with a wedding and ends with a funeral. In between the wedding and the funeral we see a birth, an attempted suicide, and a murder. This film shows all areas of human life and struggle. The film basically shows us the emotional struggles of a Taiwanese family seen though three generations. The film switches back and forth of the stories from those three different characters.

A running theme in this film is life and the existence of people and the complications that come with it. On the day of the wedding, two major events occur. NJ runs into his first love from thirty years ago and he is faced with some unfinished business. His first love wants to know why he left her waiting for some long. Later on in the film they flirt with each other, when she meets him on his business trip in Japan. However, NJ runs into complications that kept them apart for so long, however now he has a wife and children in the mix. The other major event that occurred that day was the stroke of NJ’s wife’s mother. NJ’s wife then tries to find a spiritual enlightenment after this. As the film stays true to its themes throughout, it is also firmly based in reality. As in real life, there are tears, tragedy, laughs, and love. The film is true to that in every way.

I felt the film was too long and slow. I believe there is an entertaining film somewhere in Yi Yi. I enjoyed some of the humor but there wasn’t enough. The scene with the teacher mistaking a balloon for a condom was entertaining. Also, I felt there were two funny things within the opening scene that had me anticipating a meaningful film with lots of humor. The first thing we see in the film is a groom picking his nose. I had to rewind the film to make sure that was in fact what I just saw. Then about three minutes later, a guy puts a picture of the bride and groom up upside down and doesn’t even know. For whatever reason, I thought that was a bit humorous. I did in fact laugh at that. Maybe I was being a little generous. For a near three hour film, the humor in life should have been more prevalent. I also felt the use of filming through glass to be a bit odd. It happened a lot during the film as we see the characters speak through their reflection of a window. The film had many vibrant colors in a lot of the shots. I believe this film showed a nice representation of Taiwanese life and the culture. I also enjoyed the instrumental music that started off the film and played in other scenes. It reminded me of instrumental music you would hear in movies of the late 80’s. However, it just wasn’t my cup of tea. Sometimes I enjoy slow moving films about life. Because some of the time I can relate to it, or there is witty humor, or it has an interesting story or a struggle. It wasn’t a poorly made film or anything, the film just didn’t entertain me as a whole.