Yi Yi

"The first time I held your hand. We were at a railroad crossing, going to the movies. I reached for you, ashamed of my sweaty palm. Now, I'm holding your hand again, only it's a different place, a different time, a different age… but the same sweaty palm." i think this is my favourite movie ever. i seriously don't know how to describe what i'm feeling or what i got from this movie, im genuinely so speechless oh my god. i can't believe i put this off for so long. this movie is so life changing oh my god oh my god. i want more please give me more i love this movie so fucking much. the themes of guilt, looking at ur past mistakes, self reflection, the meaning of life oh my god they hit me so hard and i would go and watch this movie right now for the second time if i could but i truly need to process this masterpiece through my small brain. edward yang what the fuck have u done to me, i thought a brighter summer day was a masterpiece of adolescence and teenage life, but this is just a masterpiece of both and a whole lot more including family drama, the cycle of life and the way u feel love towards people and how u love things, whether it be watching movies, taking photographs, the people u love. this movie describes it all perfectly. "I've never loved anyone else." the main 3 characters are all written amazingly and their stories (especially Nj's story) mean so much to me and they all hit me so hard. i really never expected this movie to hit me as hard as it did and i watched this at the perfect of my life. i can't wait to rewatch this when im older and i just can't wait to watch this movie over and over again, it's truly a masterpiece of drama and romance. the cinematography in this movie is fantastic aswell, that scene when nj is on his way to tokyo is one of my favourite shots in cinema. the scene when he's smoking in his tokyo apartment/hotel is also one of the best shots in cinema. yang-yang just casually spits out some of the most philosophical and meaningful shit i've ever heard in my life, like that amazing speech at the funeral at the end of the movie. that hit me HARD. what he said to NJ in the car aswell bro, Yang-yang is just a philosophical genius at the age of 8 too bro. what a legend. ting-ting is my favourite character in this movie alongside nj just for her entire parallel with her fathers (nj) first love when her and fatty are going to the cinema that entire scene just gave me butterflies and it made me feel something i never felt before. "My uncle says we live three times as long since man invented movies. It means movies give us twice what we get from daily life."  even the side characters in this movie are well written, fatty, lily, sherry, a-di, ota. they're all fantastically written and they're all hate-able and loveable (because some are written to be hate-able cough fatty cough) they're so well written and i love ota. we all need a person like ota in our life. i could listen to him yap about magicians and how u never live the same day twice. he really is a special man and i feel bad for what njs company did to him bro. he really didn't deserve that at all. man lili lowk had such a terrible life, the thing with the teacher and how like both of the 2 boys she dated were very toxic, i just felt very bad for her and i think she deserved better. sherry is one of my favourite characters in this movie aswell just because i loved her interactions with nj when they were on their tokyo business trip, their dialogue was just so natural and so perfect in every way. "Daddy, can we only know half of the truth?" the entire tokyo sequence is just the best storytelling in any movie, the way njs speech correlate's with what's happening between ting-ting and fatty and how his speech parallels what their doing is probably the best scene in all of cinema. that scene in the car between yang-yang and nj has one of my favourite moments ever. the entire marriage and funeral connection which has to do with the cycle of life just fills me up with so much hope and this movie really has gave me the meaning to live. it fills me up with so much hope yet fills me up with so much despair. this movie is the reason why i watch cinema. this movie is what i need to keep on living. this movie is me. "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." ** **amazing movie