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Yi Yi

Original title: Yi yi
  • 2000
  • Not Rated
  • 2h 53m
IMDb RATING
8.1/10
31K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
2,042
620
Yi Yi (2000)
Watch Trailer [OV]
Play trailer2:02
2 Videos
99+ Photos
DramaRomance

Each member of a middle-class Taipei family seeks to reconcile past and present relationships within their daily lives.Each member of a middle-class Taipei family seeks to reconcile past and present relationships within their daily lives.Each member of a middle-class Taipei family seeks to reconcile past and present relationships within their daily lives.

  • Director
    • Edward Yang
  • Writer
    • Edward Yang
  • Stars
    • Nien-Jen Wu
    • Elaine Jin
    • Issei Ogata
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    8.1/10
    31K
    YOUR RATING
    POPULARITY
    2,042
    620
    • Director
      • Edward Yang
    • Writer
      • Edward Yang
    • Stars
      • Nien-Jen Wu
      • Elaine Jin
      • Issei Ogata
    • 130User reviews
    • 88Critic reviews
    • 94Metascore
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 14 wins & 23 nominations total

    Videos2

    Trailer [OV]
    Trailer 2:02
    Trailer [OV]
    The Cast of 'Tigertail' Name Their Favorite Films in Asian Cinema
    Clip 2:56
    The Cast of 'Tigertail' Name Their Favorite Films in Asian Cinema
    The Cast of 'Tigertail' Name Their Favorite Films in Asian Cinema
    Clip 2:56
    The Cast of 'Tigertail' Name Their Favorite Films in Asian Cinema

    Photos100

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    + 94
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    Top cast90

    Edit
    Nien-Jen Wu
    Nien-Jen Wu
    • N.J.
    • (as Nianzhen Wu)
    Elaine Jin
    Elaine Jin
    • Min-Min
    Issei Ogata
    Issei Ogata
    • Mr. Ota
    Kelly Lee
    • Ting-Ting
    Jonathan Chang
    • Yang-Yang
    Hsi-Sheng Chen
    Hsi-Sheng Chen
    • A-Di
    • (as Xisheng Chen)
    Su-Yun Ko
    Su-Yun Ko
    • Sherry Chang-Breitner
    • (as Suyun Ke)
    Chuan-cheng Tao
    Chuan-cheng Tao
    • Dada
    • (as Michael Tao)
    Shu-shen Hsiao
    Shu-shen Hsiao
    • Xiao-Yan
    • (as Shushen Xiao)
    Meng-chin 'Adriene' Lin
    Meng-chin 'Adriene' Lin
    • Lili
    • (as Adrian Lin)
    Pang Chang Yu
    • Pangzi
    • (as Yupang Chang)
    Ru-Yun Tang
    Ru-Yun Tang
    • Grandma
    • (as Ruyun Tang)
    Shu-Yuan Hsu
    Shu-Yuan Hsu
    • Mrs. Jiang
    • (as Shuyuan Xu)
    Hsin-Yi Tseng
    • Yunyun
    • (as Xinyi Zeng)
    Yung-Feng Lee
    • Migo
    • (as Yungfeng Li)
    Shi-hui Chin
    • Nancy
    • (as Shihui Jin)
    Jie Wu
    • Wu Jie
    Kuo-Chih Shu
    • Shu Ge
    • (as Guozhi Shu)
    • Director
      • Edward Yang
    • Writer
      • Edward Yang
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews130

    8.130.8K
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    Featured reviews

    8secondtake

    Such universal human interactions you'll rarely see so honestly...

    Yi Yi (2000)

    Losing director Edward Lang recently (he died in 2007) was hard on the film world in general, as well as on Chinese language films with an international reach. And "Yi Yi" is a great, offbeat and yet accessible, likable film. What happens is very simple--an extended family is portrayed over several months as they enter relationships and life takes its usual tragic-comic toll. In a way, nothing in particular happens. There is no grand focus to the film in the usual sense (a murder, a love affair, a business deal gone wrong) but instead all of these things happen and overlap.

    Some viewers will surely find it too dull and slow to withstand, but most viewers (the majority) once you give it a chance, will find the humanity bracing, the honesty of the acting and the writing (also by Lang) alive and well. It is filmed with straight forward storytelling expertise, but it is paced and edited with a higher order of intelligence. The sequence of disparate events, as young and old people fall in love and have close calls with death, is meshed together with intuitive brilliance.

    It might somehow not be a great film. It might lack the larger turning point drama to make it stand out and make a viewer stand up. But it's a quiet, almost magical film with terrific acting. Maybe the largest thing I took away from it is how universal people's activities are. True, this is Taiwan and not mainland China, so things are more Westernized, but we can identify with everything so acutely it's quite amazing. A gem of a film, too long, but still a gem.
    8valadas

    Kaleidoscope

    The action takes place in Taipei like it could take place in any other modern town of this world because the dramas that occur in our urban bourgeois society are the same everywhere. In fact we see here a very westernized society in terms of values and living standards both material and moral. The movie develops itself in a succession of apparently incoherent sequences which nevertheless are bound by a conducting wire that has much to do with life in itself concerning a chain of different generations, from the dying grandmother to the small boy who is not the less important character here. This succession reminds us of Godard's movies though this one and the sequences themselves are full of meaning. Even the silences they contain are very eloquent sometimes. The scenery is usually very neat, clear and quiet in terms of furniture, urban views and people and camera movements which doesn't make the story less dramatic at all. Particularly interesting and very well shown is the counterpoint between the love meetings of teenagers and the meeting of the fourtyish couple of the former lovers who meet for the first time again 30 years after their courtship had been broken in dramatic circumstances. Problems concerning the meaning of life and the real nature of love are shown mainly through the very incisive dialogues making us thinking once more that love is a much more complicated thing than romanticism depicts. It has features and ups and downs that remain unexplained sometimes. This movie is one of the most significant ones I have seen in which concerns human nature and its conflict with the values of modern bourgeois society on the one hand and also universal values of all times on the other. We watch here problems of children and teenagers but also of adults either marital, professional or spiritual. And all this told in a smooth and quiet way portraying normal people leading normal lives. This movie presents itself indeed like a kaleidoscope of real nowadays life.
    10mattwakeman

    breathtaking

    Films like American Beauty give rise to a huge amount of hype, they are hailed as being intelligent and having things to say. The reason that they stand out so much is that in the multiplexes in which they are shown, the cause of their difference to the family comedies and juvenile violence, is by actually having something called 'Character Development'.

    This would appear to be a foreign issue to the majority of film makes. But luckily for some cinema goers, it is not a foreign area for people like Edward Yang. 'Yi Yi' is an exquisite observation of a family in which all the ages are represented at varying stages of life. From the father struggling to retain his sense of thinking that work is still important, his wife struggling with the illness of her mother. And his children learning in their own ways about what life has to offer, both of which like everyone else in the film are superbly acted.

    Life rolls through every one of these characters and the annoying stereotypes that to a certain extent ruined American Beauty, for me anyway, are not here. Every character is superbly drawn and fantastically beautiful. For some people no doubt this film would be hell. Three hours of dialogue and a story which purports to show nothing more than life being lived. It is a great example of the art of writing however, that the characters remain with us long after the film has finished.

    Although the entire cast was terrific one performance, for me, rose above the norm. It was Issey Ogata in the role of the cutting edge games designer Ota. His speech of our fear of newness when surely every day is unique really did take my breath away. It is a superbly shot film but the editing is excellent. So many times there were cross-fertilisation of ideas and story strands. When we could see the same relationship being played out in three very different stages amongst the members of the same family.

    People may complain that maybe not a lot happens, that people don't really go anywhere and nothing is resolved. To me, however, this is a slice of life. Of all of our lives as we try to make sense not only of those around us but of ourselves. The closest recent film that i have seen to this is 'Magnolia' and while i would certainly recommend that whole-heartedly, there have been very few films that i have felt so accurately portrayed people as being people as 'Yi Yi'.

    This is a film that reminds me of how good films can be. It also reminds me of how lucky I am to be able to enjoy and appreciate being moved by three hours of skill and effort. Simply breathtaking.
    10wjfickling

    About as good as film can get

    This is without a doubt the best film of 2000, a masterpiece of sublety and understatement. It is long--just under three hours--but during that three hours, the entire range of human experience is covered. It is about life--that's it. But, to make a statement about life, you have to illustrate it with lives, and this Yang does exquisitely. There is a tragic undercurrent running through this film, and while I was watching it I thought of Thoreau's observation that "most men lead lives of quiet desperation." Yet, in spite of the travails the film's characters undergo, it is ultimately a work of affirmation. This is about as good as the art of cinema can get.
    10christian94

    Contemplative and Contemporary

    This movie is a beautiful piece of art. Every shot of the movie is like a painting in its own right. Hats off to cinematographer Wei-han Yang for getting so many splendid images on film. From his serene reflective shots against a city nocturnal background, to innovative bird eye-view shots, to neat mirror shots, to the perspective of the bedridden grandmother in a coma, to cars passing by in front of the actors, to gorgeous corporate buildings... everything on camera was meticulously thought out.

    Director Edward Yang uses this visual candy diligently and incorporates it nicely into his narrative. His script is very poetic and allows for a lot of reflective pause... which is, you've guessed it, supported by silent stunning images. The characters feel very real and their problems and concerns move us. The little boy is simply adorable and his perspective on life is quite refreshing. The dialogue is rich and intelligent and if you listen carefully you'll understand why this movie is so long... But the length does not drag the movie. Rather it allows us to think and to appreciate. There is enough material in this movie (both words and images) to have anyone musing for days if he so desires.

    The ending of the movie is very well done and you don't really know if you feel like laughing or crying at that point, but you certainly know that you have just witnessed an amazing movie, a movie without proper description. Because like Yang chose to do, I should just be silent and let you enjoy.

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Although Yi Yi (2000) is often regarded as one of the greatest Taiwanese films ever made, it was not officially released to the public in Taiwan until 2017.
    • Quotes

      Yang-Yang: I'm sorry, Grandma. It wasn't that I didn't want to talk to you. I think all the stuff I could tell you... You must already know. Otherwise, you wouldn't always tell me to 'Listen!' They all say you've gone away. But you didn't tell me where you went. I guess it's someplace you think I should know. But, Grandma, I know so little. Do you know what I want to do when I grow up? I want to tell people things they don't know. Show them stuff they haven't seen. It'll be so much fun. Perhaps one day... I'll find out where you've gone. If I do, can I tell everyone, and bring them to visit you? Grandma, I miss you. Especially when I see my newborn cousin who still doesn't have a name. He reminds me that you always said you felt old. I want to tell him that I feel I am old, too.

    • Connections
      Featured in Siskel & Ebert: Sweet November/Recess: School's Out/Down to Earth/Faithless/Yi Yi (2001)
    • Soundtracks
      Sweetly Breathing
      Adaptation by Kai-Li Peng

      Composed by Ludwig van Beethoven

      Arranged by Tu Yin

      Performed by Kai-Li Peng

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    FAQ17

    • How long is Yi Yi?Powered by Alexa

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • December 16, 2000 (Japan)
    • Countries of origin
      • Taiwan
      • Japan
    • Languages
      • Mandarin
      • Min Nan
      • Hokkien
      • English
      • Japanese
      • French
    • Also known as
      • Y uno y dos
    • Filming locations
      • Taipei City, Taiwan
    • Production companies
      • 1+2 Seisaku Iinkai
      • Atom Films
      • Basara Pictures
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $1,136,776
    • Gross worldwide
      • $1,206,638
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      2 hours 53 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby Digital
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

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