Besides being a serious blow to world cinema – as Yang was clearly one of cinema’s great humanist and surveyors of modern life – the news has struck me in a deeper, more personal way, for his film Yi Yi is one of the defining touchstones of my movie-going life, a film which altered my perception of every other bit of filmmaking I’ve come across since. The film even provides the inspiration for the title of this blog, A One and a Two, the alternative English title to his millennial masterpiece. It may seem silly to dub Yang the greatest filmmaker of the last 20 odd years having only seen Yi Yi, but few artists have matched Yang’s staggering achievement. now his swan song film. I feel, with Yang’s passing, I owe him some (brief) thoughts on Yi Yi:
The film begins with a wedding and ends with a funeral, and in between teems and overflows with life, in the purest sense of the word. Yi Yi is a truly epic film, but only in the sense that it lets its characters breathe and provides for them the space and time to let their choices and actions reverberate off of one another. There is almost no point in discussing specific plot details in Yi Yi to new viewers because one of the many joys of watching Edward Yang’s masterpiece is the way in which he tangles up the characters’ lives and then, with the grace of a true master, unravels them. The film at once evokes the mysterious, elliptical rhythms of life and the spontaneity of existence – be it in the way a specter of the past appears in the flesh at the most unlikely of times or how a touching spiritual encounter brings life to what was otherwise believed dead. Aesthetically, Yang favors long takes and wide shots, pushing his characters not only to confront and interact with their environments, but each other. Yang uses this formal space not to separate the viewer, but to draw them closer, to form an emotional connection via this shared plane. Subsequently, Yang’s compositions are never pretty or painterly, but are constantly fascinating.
Even with all this considered, Yi Yi is far from being stiff, cold or, worse, pretentious. It’s brimming with humor and drama, joy and sadness. Even the English title, A One and a Two, beautifully anticipates the sublime symphony of life the film exudes. More than any other film I’ve ever seen, Yi Yi looks and feels like life unfolding. That’s the highest compliment I can think of.
Thank you, Mr. Yang, for blessing us with your talent, humor and wisdom.
