Yi Yi

I started watching this weeks ago and I reached about the halfway point before I stopped. I took a break from it- a break from movies in general tbh - as it wasn’t really sticking with me. I found it a bit confusing the way it was edited/ordered. Eventually I got the gist that it was showcasing the lives of a family, with their point of views intertwined through the movie, albeit not always following chronologically. But as I came back to finish it today, it didn’t take too long to click. The first half already had gorgeous cinematography and framing/ blocking, that was never in question for me. But something about the way this sort of unraveled after the halfway point made me seem so stupid for not getting it before. Every scene now seems to be placed perfectly, with the edits between scenes being so good that I would notice it every time. People like to say good editing is when you don’t notice the cuts, but great editing is when you notice how good one scene transitions into another. I would even catch sound editing cues that made me think of how much methodical work was put into stitching these scenes together. Each storyline blossoms into weaves of rosy bushes, that truly don’t skip the pain of thorns, but eventually bloom into beautiful roses that deliver emotional punches that aren’t pulled in any way. There’s no soap opera score, dynamic camera movement, or overdone acting performances that try to get a reaction from you. It’s literally just showing you life. And some scenes are heart wrenching, while others are filled with a childlike whim, yet neither seem out of place while next to each other. It almost makes me think that the way it’s structured is supposed to make you confused at first, and slowly as time passes you make sense of what you’re given. No matter what life throws at us, we always seem to find a way to make sense of it, which I guess is the common human experience of living.