Starring Wu Nianzhen, Kelly Lee, Jonathan Chang, Elaine Jin, Issey Ogata, Ke Suyun, Hsi-Sheng Chen, Shu-shen Hsiao, Hsen-Yi Tseng, Adrian Lin, Pang Chang Yu. Written and Directed by Edward Yang. NJ Jian (Nianzhen) lives in middle-class Taipei in an apartment with his wife Min-Min (Jin), their teenage daughter Ting-Ting (Lee), 8-year-old son Yang-Yang (Chang), and Min-Min's aging mother. Today is the day Min-Min's brother A-Di (Chen) is being married, not to his high-school sweetheart Yun-Yun (Tseng), but to the good-looking woman he got pregnant. A-Di has delayed the wedding to the point where his bride-to-be is showing because he wished to pick a lucky day from the Chinese almanac. The wedding ceremony and later the banquet is subdued until the drinking starts. NJ also bumps into his high-school sweetheart Sherry (Suyun) who he hasn't seen for over 20 years, now a successful executive in Chicago in town on business. When it's over and the family returns home, they find Grandma being taken to the hospital after suffering from a stroke. Still in a coma, Grandma is brought home. Ting-Ting thinks the stroke is her fault and can't sleep. Min-Min begins to question her life and what it all means when she can't think of anything important to say to her comatose mother, and heads off to a monastery for enlightenment. NJ is a part-owner in a computer hardware company coming off a year of record profits to face potential financial meltdown, and meets a potential saviour in software producer Ota (Ogata). He becomes disillusioned with business when his partners would rather work with a local knock-off company than the visionary Ota. Yang-Yang likes a pretty girl in his class at school, and takes up photography. Ting-Ting acts as a go-between for her next neighbour and her boyfriend as their relationship is going sour, and soon a romance begins to blossom for him and Ting-Ting. The family continues to drift, waiting to see whether Grandma will ever wake up. Yi-Yi is a story about typical daily life, a wedding, a funeral, a first love, a past love, a birth and a death. It is a non-sentimental examination of the lives lead by the three main characters NJ, Ting-Ting and Yang-Yang, and all three get equal time for their stories. It subtly illustrates how life can change abruptly by the decisions made by oneself and those who are close, and by events beyond their control. It shows relationships between family members and those of the opposite sex are tenuous, and that people are so busy that they don't really know the inner lives of their loved ones and romantic partners. The film shows characters living modern lives with all the machines and conveniences, while still holding on to many of the superstitions of the past - using lucky days, horoscopes and picking just the right name to please the gods. The family crisis brings spirituality and life's purpose to the forefront - Min-Min retreats to a buddhist monestary to try and find guidance, NJ finds some comfort and enlightenment from talking to the thoughtful and sensible Ota, and the children look to their classmates. Actually, the storylines involving Ota are among the film's most magical and interesting. Another of the film's better moments involves the comparison between NJ and Sherry's reminiscing about and rekindling their long past romance, and Ting-Ting and Fatty's tentative and awkward romance trying to blossom despite their nervousness. The interesting part is how closely the older couple resembles the younger one in their inability to communicate their feelings to one another. The film is carefully made and is not done in an overly arty way, instead plain and straight-forward. The photography shows a vibrant (and surprisingly not too polluted) Taipai, often reflecting the bright lights and expressways through the windows the characters work and live near. The performances are strong throughout, Issey Ogata's mellow computer software guru standing out. The three principles, especially Nianzhen's weary NJ beaten down by life and a job he has no love for, and Lee's sweet and naive schoolgirl searching for love. American family dramas are rarely this well-observed and simply told, and too often fall back on excess sentimentality and melodrama - the only recent example I can think of is the excellent You Can Count On Me. Yi-Yi is well worth seeing. If you would like to respond, please click the E-Mail Press Here To Go To The Review List Page