Yi Yi (Film)

2000. Dir: Edward Yang.









The Film:
"It portrays an extended family and their neighbours, friends and business partners in a 'world of jet travel, bullet trains and instant electronic transfer of money, image and information'. Yi Yi displays Yang's characteristic visual style - long takes and wide shots depicting characters in their socio-spatial context. For example, when NJ's ex-girlfriend weeps alone in her Tokyo hotel room, the scene is entirely shot in one take, in reflection, looking out of the window into a densely built-up metropolitan night sky. Throughout the film, glass reflections convey the permeability of space - space without borders appropriate to the age of transnational capitalism. The characters' identities, relationships and affective states fuse with the cartography of global cities, teeming with anonymous transnational spaces, ambivalent signifiers of aspiration and alienation."




Reception:
Won Best Director Prize at Cannes 2000.


References:
http://worldcinemadirectory.co.uk/component/film/?id=1185
Essay in Chinese Films in Focus.