Yi Yi (2000)
"Yi yi" (original title)

Each member of a family in Taipei asks hard questions about life's meaning as they live through everyday quandaries. NJ is morose: his brother owes him money, his mother is in a coma, his ... See full summary »

Director:

Edward Yang

Writer:

Edward Yang

Stars:

Nien-Jen Wu, Elaine Jin, Issei Ogata

14 wins & 11 nominations.

Cast

Credited 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:
Josephine A. Blankstein	...	(as An-an Hsu)
Yiwen Chen

Storyline

Each member of a family in Taipei asks hard questions about life's meaning as they live through everyday quandaries. NJ is morose: his brother owes him money, his mother is in a coma, his wife suffers a spiritual crisis when she finds her life a blank, his business partners make bad decisions against his advice, and he reconnects with his first love 30 years after he dumped her. His teenage daughter Ting-Ting watches emotions roil in their neighbors' flat and is experiencing the first stirrings of love. His 8-year-old son Yang-Yang is laconic like his dad and pursues truth with the help of a camera. "Why is the world so different from what we think it is?" asks Ting-Ting.

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Plot Keywords:

love | business | coma | neighbor | camera | 

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Genres:

Drama | Music | Romance

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

Taiwan Japan

Language:

Mandarin Min Nan Hokkien English Japanese

Release Date:

16 December 2000 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Yi Yi

Filming Locations:

Taipei City, Taiwan

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$9,456 (USA) (6 October 2000)

Gross:

$235,951 (USA) (7 September 2001)

Company Credits

Production Co:

AtomFilms, Nemuru Otoko Seisaku Iinkai, Omega Project

Technical Specs

Runtime:

173 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Issei Ogata's English dialog was re-written and even improvised during the shooting by Ogata himself. Yang wanted to have his Japanese character speaking realistically, not in the stereotypical manner Japanese characters in English-speaking films often do.

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Quotes

Ting-Ting: [Subtitled Version] Why is the world so different from what we thought it was? Now that you're awake and see it again... has it changed at all? Now I've closed my eyes... the world I see... is so beautiful.

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Connections

References Wild Wild West (1999)

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Soundtracks

"One More Moon"
Composed by Kai-Li Peng
Performed by Kai-Li Peng

User Reviews

insightful masterpiece

This insightful, beautifully written and directed film contemplates on many things concerning the modern individual. The focus is a family in Taipei, the feelings, struggles, conflicts of family members at different life stages. The architecture is used as a part of the story, the surroundings the characters are in, always seem to tell us something about that particular situation. The effects of modernity and capitalism on the individual and traditional values are aptly analyzed and basic human emotions like love, loneliness, commitment and frustration are contemplated with a hard to match observation and tenderness. The little boy seems to verbalize the director's approach to film making: "We only understand half of everything because we can only see what's in front of us." and Yang's camera aptly shows us "the other side" of every situation. As a character says "with films, we experience many more lives than we actually can in one lifetime" and this film is a whole life experience in 3 hours.