Part of Restoration Roundup
The extraordinary, internationally embraced YI YI, directed by the late Taiwanese master Edward Yang, follows a middle-class family in Taipei over the course of one year, beginning with a wedding and ending with a funeral. Whether chronicling middle-age father NJ’s tentative flirtations with an old flame or precocious young son Yang-Yang’s attempts at capturing reality with his beloved camera, the filmmaker deftly imbues every gorgeous frame with a compassionate clarity. Warm, sprawling and dazzling, this intimate epic is one of the undisputed masterworks of the new century.
4K digital restoration carried out by Pony Canyon Inc., with analog and digital processes provided by Imagica Entertainment Media Services, Inc.
“In exchange for three hours of your time, YI YI will give you more life…. Movies are an inherently, sometimes cheaply emotional medium, but it takes a lot to make a grown critic cry. As I watched the final credits of YI YI through bleary eyes, I struggled to identify the overpowering feeling that was making me tear up. Was it grief? Joy? Mirth? Yes, I decided, it was all of these. But mostly, it was gratitude.” —A.O. Scott, NYT Critic’s Pick, New York Times “YI YI isn’t hard to put into words because it’s one of the best movies ever made, it’s one of the best movies ever made because it’s hard to put into words…. Time and again, through death and even murder, this intricate ensemble story returns to the same idea: If people could see everything for themselves, there would be nothing for us to show each other. Reminding us of that might be the single most valuable thing that movies can do, and no movie has ever done it better than YI YI.” —David Ehrlich, IndieWire “Wise, delicate and impeccably performed, YI YI is a three-hour drama that looks at one middle-class family in transition — and does so with such a kind and probing eye that we all see our lives reflected through Yang's lens.” —Edward Guthmann, San Francisco Chronicle “It's a magical film — an exquisitely made and exceedingly wise family drama that communicates a touching sense of the universality of the human condition, and leaves us with the rich emotional satisfaction we just don't seem to get often at the movies anymore.” —William Arnold, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
