Yi Yi
dir. Edward Yang
Winstar Cinema

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about Yi Yi (A One and a Two), Edward Yang's wondrous multi-generational family drama, is the way it takes a conventional archetype and renders it so you forget this is a family drama or a mid-life crisis movie. With his impeccable writing and subtle direction, Yang has created a remarkable, realistic slice of life that almost needs to be seen two or three times to fully comprehend everything that happens. In some ways, it's as absorbing as living.

Yi Yi revolves around the Jian family, a slightly disfunctional bunch living in Taipei. Its central character is NJ, a middle-aged executive who, while watching his company tank, his wife break down and his children grow older faster than he'd like, wonders if he made the right decisions. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to NJ, the other members of his family — his teenage daughter Ting-Ting, 8-year-old son Yang-Yang and his ne'er-do-well, recently married brother A-Di — find themselves embroiled in dramas and dilemmas of their own. In essence, Yi Yi is about one particularly trying life cycle within one family, and to say anything more about its plot could ruin a viewer's appreciation for the film.

The ensemble cast is matched by few. Nien-Jien Wu brings a world-weary wistfulness to NJ while making it possible to believe that the character still has hope. As his brother, Hsi-Sheng Chen provides comic relief that never feels out of place. But the movie's most poignant and touching performances belong to Kelly Lee and Jonathan Chang, who play NJ's son and daughter, respectfully.

There have been few teenagers in cinema as perfectly insecure and unsure as Lee's Ting-Ting. Every day is full of cosmically important moments in Ting-Ting's life, just as it was for the rest of us, and it's easy to find oneself slipping back into that mindset while watching her. Chang nearly steals the show from her as the precocious Yang-Yang, giving a pitch-perfect performance that embodies both the innocence and profundity of children.

The film's only problem, to use the term lightly, is that its story and acting create such a rich tapestry that you might overloook Yang's exceptional technical prowess. But that may very well be his ultimate expression of his point — allow life to unfold and don't worry about the technicalities.

On first viewing, Yi Yi emerges as a real masterpiece and a hallmark of cinema. Just imagine the possibilities it offers upon a second.

— Stephanie Kuenn (smkuenn at gmail dot com)