Yi Yi (A One and a Two) [2000]

Yi Yi, the final film by legendary Taiwanese filmmaker Edward Yang, is a masterful exploration of the mundane details, foibles and moments of personal disappointments that often come to one's define life. Yet, conversely, it is also a moving celebration of the very act of living. This multi-generational saga and layered human drama starts with a bumbling marriage ceremony which doesn’t just set the film rolling, but also forms a subtle metaphor for the slowly disintegrating middle-class Taipei family it is based on. Each character is grappling with both familial and personal issues that make the older members reminisce of their heartbreaks, while educates the youngsters to come to terms with the fact that life is rarely fair to all. Every single person has been so meticulously delineated with soft, fine strokes, and brought forth through such naturalistic performances, that they literally jump out of the screen and present themselves before us as vividly human and devastatingly real people of flesh and blood. The lush photography, the meditative (and melancholic) tone, the unhurried pace, and the profound depth of the rich storyline make the film unfold as an epic piece of literature while covering the entire spectrum from the simple nuances of quotidian life to complex examination of the universal themes of guilt and loneliness.





Director: Edward Yang
Genre: Drama/Family Drama/Ensemble Film
Language: Taiwanese
Country: Taiwan

Rebels of the Neon God (Ch'ing Shaonien Na Cha) [1992]

Tsai Ming-Liang, one of the most prominent directors to have come out of the cinematically productive land of Taiwan, made his film debut with this oddball, whimsical, harrowing and deeply brooding parable on human loneliness and urban alienation. The paths of the severely disaffected son of a cab driver, and a brash chain-smoking thief who steals changes from telephone boxes and computer parts from video game stores he frequents along with his equally delinquent brother, cross when the latter deliberately vandalizes the cab while the former is riding in it along with his father. While the two brothers continue with their petty stealing and the elder of the two spends the remaining time making love to his casual girlfriend, the cabbie’s son starts following them in his quest for revenge. An extremely low-budget minimalist film (with camera movements, dialogues and music kept at bare minimum), the Taiwanese art-house movie is difficult to start with. Yet thanks to the visually poetic and psychologically jarring depiction of estrangement, juvenile rebelliousness (yes, James Dean does make a very special blink-and-you-miss appearance in the form of a poster from Rebel Without A Cause!), seedy neon-washed underbelly of Taipei’s urban jungle with all its squalor and decadence, and a curious mix of understated pathos and bleak irony, Rebels of the Neon God has become a cult Asian classic that deserves more dissertation and wider recognition.





Director: Tsai Ming-Liang
Genre: Urban Drama/Existential Drama/Anti-Establishmentarian Drama/Experimental Movie
Language: Taiwanese
Country: Taiwan