Yi Yi

I am not able to penetrate this film, but what I can say with complete conviction is that it is the most essential work of the 21st century. Yang layers this film, and weaves an ensemble of character, plot and theme into a genuine tapestry of the very human condition itself. There is so much going on here: the nature of the individual, both relative to and separate from the collective; what it means to live in the 21st century; the changing dynamic of Taiwanese identity; the timeless fruits and pains of love and our tragic though fundamental inability to ever properly express ourselves or understand one another; the epochs of the human experience; the simultaneous yearning for and inability to remove oneself from the past; and perhaps most importantly, life. As is the case in Yang’s filmography, there is an overall sense of stylistic restraint, evidenced best of all in the compositions, which in their removal acquire an overarching sense of complete and objective intimacy, and a visual contextualisation of the complexities of life. The distanced framing and frames within frames accommodate this greatly, but what I think most amazed me about Yi Yi’s technical genius was its use of reflections. A character’s individual problems, his or her personal or localised angst, is set against the backdrop of the city of Taipei itself by way of reflections, overlaying the streetlights or passing cars upon their faces. Yang’s ability to contextualise the intricacies of the individual against a universal backdrop is something that I have only seen rivalled by Tarkovsky’s ability to do so in Andrei Rublev. And yet, also, not to recognise the ultimate simplicity of Yi Yi is not to recognise the film for what it is. Existentialism here is rendered a necessity of the human experience, and a beautiful imperfection at that. The understanding and balance with which Yang crafts this film is perhaps its most impressive attribute. I’m afraid that if I type more, try to express what has been impressed upon me more, that I will lose the mere handfuls I have captured from this film, and its effect will have been neutralised and sedated by words, so I’ll leave it here.