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Taiwanese master Edward Yang
The four-hour
Guling Jie Shaonian Sha Ren Shijian/ A Brighter Summer Day (1991)
could be his masterpiece.
Taipei Story
A Confucian Confusion (1995)
Mahjong (1996)
The existential comedy Yi Yi/ A One and a Two is a bitter meditation
on the meaning of life, overloaded with philosophical observations.
It is interesting that the director tends to use the child as the main
philosopher. It is the child that comes up with sentences such as "You cannot
see what I see and I cannot see what you see".
The action is framed by the grandma's coma: it starts with the cause of that
coma, and it ends with her death. The grandma doesn't play an active role
in the film, but the characters revolve around her, psychologically and
morally. The members of the family can't communicate among themselves, so
they talk to her, who can't hear, and discuss their problems only with her.
She represents a morality that is dying away, but she inspires her family
to uphold that morality.
As usual, the film is beautifully photographed. In addition, Yang excels at
using window panes to double the dynamics: by overlapping the reflection or the
refraction of another environment to the main action, Yang provide the
characters with a broader context than just the narrow room or office where
they are moving. A woman has a crisis in a skyscraper's office and we see
(and hear) from the window the busy roads of the city. The father is in the
office and we see (and hear) his secretary outside talking to a friend on the
phone.
Yang is a master of subtlety. From the beginning a number of subplots are
interwined with the main plot (the girls teasing the child, the daughter
spying her friend's love rendesvouz from the window, the father's meeting
with his first sweetheart, etc) but they are
barely noticeable. The very reason for the tragedy (the garbage bag that
the daughter forgot to bring downstairs) is shown only for one second.
Not even Hitchcock made such a parsimonious and effective use of "signs".
The main tragic events (from the hospitalization of the grandmother to
the murder) are hardly emphasized. They happen in a few seconds, and very
often we know that something important happened only because we see an
ambulance or a police car. They are over in a few seconds. But then Yang spends
hours showing the effects of those events.
Yang is a master also at directing actors and at composing scenes.
Every detail matters and every person in the scene matters, no matter
how secondary. Each scene is carefully composed, like in a Rembrandt
painting.
At the wedding of A-Di, NJ's brother, with the woman who is pregnant of his
child, Xiao Yen, A-Di's elderly mother is unhappy.
A-Di's former fiance` show up uninvited and makes
a scene in front of the old woman. Several relatives and friends thinks that
the bride stole A-Di from her and grandma seems to be also sorry for the whole
affair. She asks to be taken home.
The girls of the family seem to enjoy teasing Yang-Yang, NJ's child.
Ting Ting, NJ's daughter, is a quiet and shy girl who sees from the window
her best friend Lili (who lives next door) meet secretely with her boyfriend
Fatty. Ting Ting is told to bring the garbage downstairs but forgets one
bag on the balcony.
On the way back after dropping his mother back at the apartment, NJ accidentally
bumps into his first love, Sherry. They have not seen each other in years, since NJ
disappeared with no explanation, and she now lives in the United States.
NJ is shocked and hardly says a word while Sherry angrily asks him why he
never showed up at their last appointment.
Back at the wedding banquet, the child takes revenge over the girls.
The grandmother is found unconscious near the garbage dumps and taken to
the hospital. Nobody knows why she walked downstairs (except for Ting Ting,
who knows she forgots the other garbage bag).
The family is reunited twice, from a wedding to an accident.
NJ's wife Min-Min is unexceptional, NJ's brother A-Di is not very intelligent
and he owes NJ some money. Ting Ting and Yang Yang, NJ's children, are both
very good children. They are a typical middle-class family.
At school, Yang Yang has the same problems with the girls. Girls tease him, and
he has to defend himself and retaliate when he can. One of the girls is called
the "Concubine" because she is the favorite of the teacher (and maybe more
than just a favorite).
Lili lives with her single mother, an executive, and plays cello. She is far
more open than Ting Ting and far more expert in men. Her mother also has
boyfriends.
NJ and A-Di are partners in a firm that desperately needs new ideas to survive.
One possibility is to ally with the Japanese videogame wizard Ota.
A-Di sees Yun Yun one more time, but only to settle their finances.
Grandmother is moved back home but she is still unconscious. The doctor
recommends that the family talk to her, so that her brain stays awake.
So they take turns at talking to her, even if she can't reply.
Ting Ting feels guilty because she forgot the garbage and thinks grandma
does not want to wake up because she has not forgiven her.
Ting Ting is witness also to the breakup between Lili and Fatty and to Lili's
mother promiscuous lifestyle.
NJ discusses business with Ota and finds him to be a wonderful man, a
philosopher of sorts ("we never live the same day twice", "why aren't we
afraid when we wake up in the morning?"). Ota can even play Beethoven at
the piano.
NJ's wife has a nervous breakdown because she has nothing to tell her mother
who is lying in a coma: the wife and mother realizes that her life is empty.
She decides to spend some time in a Buddhist temple.
Yang Yang has taken on a new hobby: taking pictures of people, but only
their back, because that's the part of themselves that they can't see.
Girls still persecute him and the teacher still uses the Concubine to frame him.
But he occasionally takes his revenge.
Lili has a new boyfriend and the old boyfriend, Fatty, uses Ting Ting to
send her letters. Lili is indifferent to his letters and Ting Ting is
annoyed of being used as a go-between.
A-Di is desperate for money and asks his old flame, Yun Yun, for help,
and sleeps with her like in the old days.
Lili is outraged when she finds her mom in bed with her own teacher.
The baby is born and another event reunites the family, but Yun Yun spoils
it by showing up uninvited again. This time A-Di's wife makes a scene and
kicks her out. This originates a fight among the men. Later, A-Di collapses,
although it looks like a suicide attempt.
NJ flies to Tokyo to meet with Ota. But also to meet with Sherry, who flies
from the United States just to see him.
Back in Taiwan, Lili's ex boyfriend is attracted to Ting Ting and invites her to a date.
The two dates proceed in parallel. As NJ and Sherry reminesce their first
date, Ting Ting and Fatty are carrying it out. One mirrors the other.
Ting Ting is living the date that Sherry had with her father when she was young.
Yang Yang is also fascinated by a girl at school, whom he sees swim in the
swimming pool. Back home, he practices holding his breath underwater in the
bathroom sink.
NJ and Sherry sleep in separate rooms, though. Sherry is unhappy and still
regrets that he left her. NJ admits that he never loved anyone else.
Ting Ting's date ends like Sherry's date with her father years before.
Fatty takes a hotel room, Ting Ting is extremely shy and afraid, Fatty
can't do it, and Ting Ting feels that Fatty doesn't really love her.
At dinner, Ota again mesmerizes NJ. He is a magician and a gentleman.
But the partners call NJ to tell him that they decided to sign with
a company that merely copycats Ota's products.
NJ is outraged and ashamed, because Ota is a good man and his partners
know no pride. NJ decides to quit.
Sherry also left the hotel, without saying goodbye.
Back at home, NJ suffers a stroke in the kitchen.
Yang Yang jumps in the swimming pool all dressed up and almost drowns.
Ting Ting confronts Fatty and Fatty, visibly shaken, insults her.
Thanks to Yun Yun's help, the inept A-Di is finally able to pay back his
debt to NJ.
The following day Ting Ting learns why Fatty was so insulting and upset:
he is arrested for murdering Lili's lover. Fatty was having an affair with
Lili's mother, too, not only with her daughter. When she found her in bed
with another man, he killed her. Ting Ting is left heartbroken and traumatized.
This is the "real life" that Fatty was talking about. Ting Ting still lives
in a world of dreams (just like Sherry used to).
Ting Ting dreams that her grandmother finally woke up and gave her a flower.
Instead, the old woman just died. But Ting Ting does hold in her hand the
flower. Ting Ting feels that she has finally been forgiven.
The business with the copycat is a failure and the partners ask NJ back.
NJ's wife returns from the Buddhist temple.
At the funeral, the family is reunited one more time.
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