Yang. Along with Hou Hsiao-hsien is the leading voice of the Taiwanese New Wave of the 1980’s. I am very eager to get back to Yang’s work after my breakthrough on Ozu in 2018 (and HHH in 2019). Yang’s reputation amongst cinephiles is far greater than where I have him here. I hope I’m wrong on him. For the purposes of this list his strength is certainly Yi Yi– a wonderful film. The compositions on this page are impossible to deny as well- a style+ auteur even if the filmography a little underwhelming in comparison with a few others I’ve yet to get to on this list.

Best film: Yi Yi. I found this to be far and away the best of the four Edward Yang films I could get my hands on (he only made a total of seven features). That are high water-shed visual moments- immaculately curated mise-en-scenes that echo HHH (Hou Hsiao-hsien) or Ozu- but also long stylistically quiet periods (it is a long film) that I had a harder time with.

total archiveable films: 3

top 100 films: 0
top 500 films: 0
top 100 films of the decade: 0

most overrated: Again, I’m certainly not willing to write them off after one viewing but for right now both Yi Yi and A Brighter Summer Day are in the consensus top 125 of all-time on TSPDT and I’m not close to that.
most underrated : I do not have one here.
gem I want to spotlight : I did not walk away overly impressed (especially given the reputation) with the first viewing of Terrorizers or A Brighter Summer Day so would have to go with Yi Yi again here.
stylistic innovations/traits:
- Compositions in medium, medium-long, and long shots (usually from a fixed camera)

- His genre was melodrama, large casts—which fit his long shot and panorama picture quality style
- The design of the mise-en-scene in Yang’s greatest shots certainly puts him in the Ozu-acolyte category – along with HHH (also a proponent of having very view if any close-ups and a fixed camera)


- Even some of his biggest admirers talk about the layering in his films and multiple viewings required
- Long films, deliberately paced—Yi Yi is 173 minutes, Summer Day is 237
top 10
- Yi Yi
- A Brighter Summer Day
- The Terrorizers
By year and grades
1986- The Terrorizers | R |
1991- A Brighter Summer Day | HR |
2000- Yi Yi | MS |
*MP is Masterpiece- top 1-3 quality of the year film
MS is Must-see- top 5-6 quality of the year film
HR is Highly Recommend- top 10 quality of the year film
R is Recommend- outside the top 10 of the year quality film but still in the archives
[…] 181. Edward Yang […]
I think you potentially underestimate the depth of Yang’s mise-en-scene here. Most of the minor details contribute to either character or world building. Some of this requires a greater understanding of Taiwanese history. For example, a common thread throughout Yang’s body of work is the influence of the three cultures of Japan, China, and the U.S. in the shaping of Taiwan. Japan through the colonial legacy, China through language and the influx of mainland culture with the arrival of KMT, and the modern alliance with the U.S. and the dominance of U.S. culture. Yang reveals these various currents of influence through setting and background detail, such as the posters of Dylan and the Beatles in the background of NJ’s house in Yi Yi, or the generational divide between Japanese and American influence in Brighter Summers Day. A common adjective to describe Yang’s films is novelistic, and it because he ascribes these minor details with larger meaning in the same way that the great novels do.
@Alex- appreciate the insight here. I will look closer the next time I study Yang’s work- which I hope to do soon.
What was the unarchivable Yang film?
@Zane- maybe I was the victim of high expectations but I did not archive Taipei Story upon first viewing.
@Drake – I caught it last night (started it after asking that question; you answered it sometime midway through) and I did think it was quite good; I’m not going to post my findings here until after I’ve seen The Terrorizers and Yi Yi – I might leave a rewatch of A Brighter Summer day (which I definitely plan on) for some other time – but I did find a few frames online to post for now:
https://imgur.com/a/ZyLYstT
Taipei Story:
A stunning opening; black screen as footsteps can clearly be heard before we cut to a gorgeous shot of two people looking out a window
Another absolute stunner of a man (not sure who yet; or should I say Hou yet? Ha) shot in a doorway in a rule of thirds shot
More of these absolute jaw-droppers; a shot just like the one above but angled slightly at 3 minutes
Work with shadows at 4 minutes; again in a doorway
I have never seen an Ozu film, but Ozu is noted by Drake to be an incredible editor and the editing here is quite excellent; a great montage in a house showing mise-en-scene arrangements and closeups of various objects
An Antonioni-like shot in an office at 5 minutes using vertical blinds
Another gorgeous one of 5 men posed in various ways wearing black suits
More genius editing as one of the characters describes a lawsuit he is in over a construction site incident and the film cuts to a montage of what happened with a voiceover; blows me away; Only Yang’s second film
A great shot tracking a man (not Hou who shows up in a second) and Tsai Chin in a building complex at 7 minutes; long distance
A great elliptical use of sound where we cut to a scene on a Highway but the sound of the cars comes early
Of course, Taiwan was very heavily influenced by the Japanese occupation; baseball (which Hou plays) is massive in Japan
A gorgeous frame of Hou sitting around a bunch of chairs and a lamp off to the side of the frame at 13 minutes
Doorway shot at 14; damn what a pretty film
Another gorgeous double doorway frame followed by a second one from a high angle!
Another stunner of Tsai Chin with sunglasses on standing in front of a door she just closed next to some framed artwork
And yet another jaw-dropper of the city streets at night as cars power down the street with those piercing orange lights
Hou is in a bar and there’s a lounge singer just like A Brighter Summer Day
Another shot with Tsai and the man from the office as he is covered by his blinds and she is not; there’s a beam between them like Antonioni in L’Eclisse
It must be the year of the doorway and hallway shot cause there’s yet another two great ones in this format using the Rule of Thirds
Another one this time with Tsai standing in the doorway facing away from the camera and Hou on the other side of the room facing towards it
32 minutes, a shot extremely similar to that one Drake has screenshotted of the funeral scene in Ordet (Hou standing up as Tsai is sitting with a table between them and a ceiling lamp)
Yang cuts to a painting as they talk and then refocuses as Hou swings his head into the frame in a closeup; to be honest I was a little disappointed by this actually as I was hoping for more of that amazing montage editing we got in the first 5 or so minutes
Hou owns a calendar with a picture of Marilyn Monroe
They’re solid; I’m not sure I’d say at this point (1/4th of the film) that either gives a top performance of the year however
Great mise-en-scene including tiled walls, colored rolls of fabric on the sides of the frame and arrangements of tables in a shot at 37 minutes
It’s funny seeing Hou having Jackie Chan hair at this point in time since all the photos I’ve seen of him show him with much shorter hair (older)
Ahh, there it is; that famous shot of Tsai and Lin looking away from eachother that makes the poster for this film
Some form here; Hou told Tsai a while back that he would watch her father and his friend play Chess and he’s doing that here
A shaky camera mounted onto a car Hou is driving
One of the film’s best shots as Hou is with one of his old baseball buddies; both facing in the opposite directions, light coming in through some windows…
Another really pretty one with blue lighting outside some windows with two doors on the very edges of the frame; a young girl is talking to an older woman on the right third of the frame
No musical score but there is some rock music played in this nice scene at the bar
A claustrophobic tracking shot as Hou gets nervous after coming to the bar with Tsai’s friends and we follow his face as he goes to the bathroom briefly
Another solid one as Hou and Tsai’s business friend are playing darts and they’re juxtaposed a little against the dartboard; the friend makes a comment to Hou about his playing baseball when he keeps missing and Hou gets pissed off and starts a fight; it’s not terrible but the fights in A Brighter Summer Day (there’s a few there) are clearly better
Another good one as Hou is sitting on the bed looking like shit and Tsai is there next to him and she eventually lies her head in his shoulder as he monologues to her
Stark imagery of another (much richer) one of Hou’s baseball friends standing alone in a completely empty room; he and Hou (who we cut to right afterward) are throwing a ball as Hou tries to sell the house to the friend; they talk about Vietnam, about America, etc.
Low angle of Tsai leaning on a brick balcony that looks a lot like the one that WKW uses in 2046 a million times (and I love it)
Yang blocking half of a frame here with a yellow car before moving the camera and blocking the other side of the frame with the same car
Easily the best shot in the film so far – nothing else even comes close – as four men, including Hou, are shot in different levels of depth at 61 minutes
A very narrow doorway shot with shirts and jackets hanging on the walls at 64 minutes
A great shot (not held for long enough) with motorcycles, cars, shop signs and the like all scattered throughout the frame at 66 minutes
Another of the film’s very best shots as Hou and I think his ex or sister are standing (and looking very small by comparison) in front of I think their old school at 68 minutes; right afterward he holds another one do the two at a swing set (her sitting on the swings and Hou standing beside it)
Hou had in the past taken a hoer trip to Tokyo where his ex was; Tsai was nervous he had gone to see her during his time there but he denied it, saying he had just had a quick stop at the airport, but here she mentions “driving back from the airport” implying it was not just a quick stop
A very strong edit from fast-forwarded baseball footage of Hou’s (watched by Tsai’s friend) to Hou and his lover in his car; there’s another great one ending that scene as she asks him when he next goes to Tokyo and we cut to him in an elevator
My God; he goes home to see Tsai and she (rightfully, despite her own affair) accuses him of having been to see Ko (the girlfriend) and he storms out and leaves without a word; she screams at him as he runs down the stairs and behind her the elevator opens and closes signifying his exit
Absolutely gorgeous lighting – reds, blues, even a little green – in this scene back at the bar where he plays poker with some friends and another lounge singer is there
Unintentional hilarity ensues as Hou tries to chase a taxi and screams very loudly and stereotypically at it; actually not a bad shot as the camera is mounted on the taxi and we see it gain distance from Hou
Will Tsai ever find employment again?
We’re at a scene by the waves now; great stuff; there’s a tracking shot of the waves and a really nice long shot of Tsai standing by the cliffy coastline
Musical score for the first time in this montage-y scene of Tsai’s birthday; really nice alternating neon lighting here; funnily enough there’s a scene a lot like this in WKW’s debut As Tears Go By
Beautiful shot of Tsai and another boyfriend who looks like a Taiwanese James Dean type standing by this massive green neon sign
Hou’s poor friend’s wife who Hou beat up in the street once for gambling instead of watching her children just killed herself
Some nice compositions with bodies in the frame and usage of color (lots of reds and blue shirts and the like) as all of the people at the party (Hou not one of them) wake up after the previous night
Nice motorcycle sequence riding through the city of Taiwan almost exactly like the end scene of Fellini’s Roma – there’s a bit where they pass by a memorial to the Republic of China (which is of course Taiwan), but I’m not sure how well it works here as this film is not a satire
More elliptical use of music as we cut from a scene at a club to Tsai back in her own home but the music presses on for a short time afterward
An Antonioni shot; Tsai on the phone but about to be pushed aside by her wall blocking off part of the frame
Again with the elliptical editing as Hou is yelling over the phone but the camera is Tsai’s POV looking out of a car window
James Dean keeps trying to pursue Tsai but she is avoiding him
A fantastic tracking shot as Tsai walks beside a Christmas sale on a shopping district; shot from the other sidewalk, cars occasionally blocking part of the frame…
Tsai calls Hou to come pick her up so she can avoid James Dean and Yang shoots her on the phone from the back of the head
One of Hou and Tsai’s dad sitting on the front steps of a building drinking as cars will pass in front of the camera from time to time
A great montage first showing a tunnel with a motorcycle in it then showing this amazing low angle shots of the faces of various buildings; cars are passing by and their headlights will illuminate the building faces or the insides of the tunnel
Lots of talk about moving to the United States which could be semi-autobiographical as Yang spent much time in America before becoming a filmmaker; “America won’t save your problems,” and that kind of talk
Tsai wants Hou to stay with her but he leaves; there’s a shot of him in the elevator and the doors close as the floor indicator changes from 3 to 2; very good
James Dean had been gone for a while but finally comes back right as Hou is leaving; Hou warns him to stop bothering Tsai and the scene ambiguously cuts as Hou leaves in a taxi and James Dean revs up his engine probably intending to follow
We see the Marilyn calendar again as we cut back to Tsai in her apartment
Hou leaves the taxi to fight James Dean and kicks the shit out of him before Dean leaves but it turns out Hou has received a stab wound; he tries to halt a passing taxi but alas it does not stop
A quite excellent image here as we see a long shot of Hou walking aside this tall streetlight as he’s dying
He happens to be sitting by a TV that’s playing a baseball game and he listens to it before pulling out a cigarette and smoking one last time
More shots with the streetlights
Yang goes pretty heavy on the montage here – ending it like it began – awesome images contained in these
A really nice rolling tracking shot of Tsai’s ex-employer walking in an empty office trying to get her a new job
This shot in the empty office could be right out of The Conformist
The final shot (pre-credits) is one of Tsai looking at her reflection in a window that then cuts to just the reflection as she puts on the sunglasses again; the boss asks Tsai if she still plans to move to America with Hou and she says no but it is disembodied; the reflection does not show any sign of speech
A really nice shot that the credits are played over; a high-rise building covered in reflective windows that cars pass through
Even here Yang is making an epic what with the giant cast of characters and the two leads’ efforts to jumble all of those relationships around
Takes like the first hour to pull out of Recommend territory (though still a very good film) but I shouldn’t have been surprised having already seen A Brighter Summer Day
I think there’s a full Must-See film or possibly even a Masterpiece if there’s more elliptically-edited scenes with voiceovers like in the beginning
Highly Recommend/Must-See border but could go Must-See with a second viewing
The Terrorizers:
Incredible montage editing in the opening; the close-up portrait, the man in the shower (with colored whales on the curtain), and him looking out his window as the curtains there blow behind him
A stunning tracking shot passing between two rooms as a woman wakes up out of bed and we see another man staring also out the window; with the previous man his girlfriend was in bed as well
I do think I’m willing to admit that even right at the beginning of the film that this is vastly superior visually to Taipei Story
I think the actor playing the photographer may be James Dean from the previous film
Heavy emphasis on sound here with the clicks of the camera and there’s also this dripping faucet as well
A stunning usage of mise-en-scene at 8 minutes; newspapers covering the windows on the other side of the frame, some tables in the center of the room with soda cans and water bottles and the like and dirt all over the ground; very rigidly-structured shot
Great stuff here with the characters encountering eachother; we’ve got the photographer capturing the teenage girl who then sees the businessman driving by her on the street; it doesn’t quite strike the viewer at first as the plot hasn’t unfolded itself at all so far but I’m sure it will over time
When the photographer took the photos of the girl I thought “heh that’s kinda like Blow-up,” but then I facepalmed and thought “Of course it’s imitating Blow-up,” cause I realized it was intentional – Yang was a big Antonioni fan
Great montage shooting windows in an office of some kind (it’s a laboratory); I remember a few shots like this in The Pornographers so I wonder if Imamura influenced Yang… that or the more likely story being that they’re too films I’ve watched recently that have similar shots that appear in a number of films
Yet another stunner; a series of windows showcasing a long line of people sitting at a table with the sun behind them illuminating the whole shot in gorgeous yellow
A totally wordless exchange and montage as the teenage girl is picked up by her mother from the hospital
Green light and symmetry in this really nice frame at 15 minutes
The girl in the shot I just mentioned goes over to a window and opens it and we see a young man – I actually think it might be the photographer but we don’t get close enough – in the reflection cleaning the windows and then cut to a low angle of the same setting
Yang surely is experimenting with lighting here – and not just with color; there’s a nice frame combining pitch black and blue lighting at 19 minutes, there’s silhouettes, etc
Followed by another one of a bartender on the phone in red lighting reflected off all of the bootlegs behind him
We’re back in that room with the tables and cans I mentioned earlier – it got raided by the police and there’s a great composition where the owner or whoever is communicating with the cops
“Smoke Gets in Your Eyes,” which I hear in all the MUBI ads (which has this film) plays at 22 minutes
We’re back in that room 2 notes above – it’s an apartment – and 3 for 3 beautiful frames inside of it
Piano music in the background at 29 minutes
Great ellipsis here; the teenage girl is telling somebody over the phone that she doesn’t want to live anymore and took a bottle of sleeping pills as the photographer’s girlfriend herself seems to have attempted suicide and is shown in an ambulance
A stunning frame at 31 minutes; I think it’s the doctor’s wife standing in a home office on one side of the frame divided away from the living room (also in the shot) by a wall
More voiceover
Jump cuts as well as I think she tries to tear apart her husband’s (or her own) work in sort of the opposite of the opening of Godard’s Tout va Bien which is deliberately done without jump cuts by their very inventor
A particularly exacting scene here as the doctor’s wife and her new lover discuss their past relationships and the like; it’s a long take in a very cutty film but it nonetheless does not feel out of place
A really great shot of her looking out the window of his apartment as she fixes her hair
The yellow lighting in the hospital appears again when we return to there
Another of these really nice frames set in a classroom as the doctor is speaking to his friend who just left the team and it cuts to a longer shot of the two surrounded by all the black tables in the room
Another really nice doorway frame of the doctor’s friend that Yang holds for a while – good to see him start to realize the power of holding onto a frame – I love the heavy sound of his footsteps as well
Another great movement of the camera following a plug wire on the floor over to a door
A striking edit juxtaposing the doctor’s wife and the teenage girl who both happen to be using the phone at the same time; a big wow formal moment
A really nice frame of the doctor’s wife standing in her home surrounded by all of the really nice furniture they’ve bought; I’m a particular fan of the red dragon pillows they have
The photographer claimed earlier that he would not buy the apartment from before that he walked into, but the doctor’s wife just went there and found him living inside it after breaking up with his girlfriend; another great enigmatic moment
The phone ringing incessantly at 45 minutes
Another great one of the photographer putting black paper all over the windows in the apartment (he’s making a darkroom, right? Yes he is)
Wall-art frame of the doctor and wife sitting at a table with a door open next to them leading into their kitchen
A long take of the wife during this tense scene with her husband
An absolute jaw-to-the-floor totally static frame shot of the doctor – in low lighting- looking at outside his window as his wife leaves; mise-en-scene mastery here with a blocked right side of the frame as well; note the reflections on the floor underneath
Whirring fan in the sound design at the teenager’s and her mother’s apartment, just a second later with the traffic around her
There are these really nice high angle long shots tracking her as she goes about the city
She makes some work as a prostitute and is robbing this one guy when she thinks he is showering but he comes out and is about to beat her when she stabs him; crazily enough I actually wonder if the guy is Yang himself as he looks enough like him
A gorgeous shot of the girl walking up some stairs right next to some trees swaying in the wind
Yang makes sure even the smallest moments of her existence are painful what with this dog barking at her on the street
Another great formal moment as she walks into the photographers darkroom and sees the photo of herself before collapsing as we see that famous shot of the photographer looking down at her
Another really nice frame of these two characters having a conversation sitting on opposite sides of the frame
I wasn’t too surprised when she stole a lot of his photographical equipment to go sell it for money
We hear the sound of a plane flying above and then the camera pans up to a bunch of photographs of planes he had taken
There’s constant talk about how the doctor never reads his wife’s books so obviously they wouldn’t have a great relationship if he can’t learn the first thing about her from learning about what she creates
A solid frame using the reflection of a woman’s face against a window at 78 minutes
The wife is back at the office she was at like an hour ago one scene; she’s won a great literary prize that the photographer reads about in the newspaper right afteward
There is the utmost assurement as a director in the tracking shot that appears at 83 minutes
Editing montage of the wife giving a TV interview over her novel; the camera gets increasingly zoomed in before we finally cut to her face on a bunch of screens
The photographer tries to call the doctor’s home and neither he nor his wife are there – he finally arrives and at first misses the call before the photographer calls again and they agree to meet
At 84 minutes there is a montage of the early pictures captured by the photographer of the girl
Great Venetian blinds appearing in an overall wall-art shot at 88 minutes
The actor playing the doctor, Li Lichung, is I think the best in the film
A stunner doorway Rule of Thirds shot of the doctor at 91 minutes; this is exactly what PTA does with Sandler in the opening of PDL to show Barry’s isolation
So much can be written about Yang’s influence from Antonioni with his use of architecture to divide frames in two
That famous 360-shot in Order almost shows up here with the doctor
At 99 minutes the doctor walks out of an elevator and then the camera moves to this rigid wall-art shot of the doctor looking to the right at the door into his wife’s lover’s apartment; really gorgeous
He kills the lover and goes into the bedroom to shoot the wife but ends up unable to do it and we cut to see he has actually shot her mirror instead
There are three scenes with the girl acting as a prostitute in the film and the final involves the doctor as the victim; a very nice editing montage as she pulls her blade out of her pocket and we cut to the doctor again with a blank expression before cutting away from the scene entirely
These cops have been chasing everyone around the entire film and here it seems they’ve finally caught the doctor – who we have seen over the course of the film is a great friend of the cops’ leader – as they break down the door into the apartment
The last few minutes of the film are not easy – very elliptical – but it seems to be it was a dream I think of the wife of her husband going out on a killing spree as she wakes up and vomits, all the while he has just killed himself in the house of his cop friend (who he was staying with) and the cop goes and finds him with his blood dripping into the bathtub or whatever behind him
I could easily be making false friends here but I wonder if there’s some connection between the wife spewing vomit out of her mouth while her husband blows his brains out the back of his head
I hate to say it but even though it’s already leaning in that direction already if this is closer to 90 minutes the film wouldn’t just be leaning – it’d be there. That being said it is good that some of the formal elements do come back such as the office in which the wife works reappears an hour after the first time and the prostitution scenes finally culminate in the doctor meeting the rebel girl, though the second scene (there are 3 and the doctor’s is the last) can probably be thrown out
I did have to read the Wikipedia page to find out he was a doctor though as previously I thought he was a chemist; and to be honest I even wonder if I was right and the Wikipedia is wrong since some other people I read said he was a chemist too
Underrated by the TSPDT consensus at #1763 – not even in the Top 1000 – but that seems to be changing as in the TSPDT Poll this one made it in at #320 which is a decent spot.
Must-See leaning Masterpiece with another viewing
A Brighter Summer Day:
Really hitting me with that first frame of the father in the school office; it’s a doorway but the doorway isn’t centered off to the frame it’s off to the right, the father is off to the left within the doorway, there’s a running ceiling fan; I forgot this first frame was so strong
Really nice ambient frame going down a long road, noticeably like much Yang it isn’t actually symmetrical, the camera has a slight angle off to the side just like the one I talked about above
Radio broadcast declaring the names of a few exceptional students
There are occasionally (at pivotal points of the film) these intertitle frames describing the scenario the film is based around
A really fantastic high angle frame on a film set Chang and his friend are watching; probably like 20 people (members of the crew) throughout the frame fanning themselves; the camera then tilts upward to show Chang and his young friend Cat watching everyone
Really great blocking in this section where Chang and his friend try to escape the crew when they are discovered; it really is like von Sternberg here as he uses the bars in the catwalk
There are a lot of scenes – though especially here at the beginning of the film- where Yang uses flashlights for lighting; it doesn’t entirely land I think but it is a bold, maverick choice
One of the characters is named Sex Bomb which I somehow missed the first time?
I love the small detail with the kid who literally hides in plain sight on the stairs right in front of the gang chasing him; they actually miss him and keep chasing after the other guy so he escapes
A really stunning frame with nighttime light pouring into the school’s hallways through the windows at 10 minutes; the shot is down the whole length of the hallway
I do know Goodfellas (which as I have mentioned in the past was only a year old in 1991) was Yang’s inspiration here, but I see a little bit of Rumble Fish with the discussion of Honey, the leader of the Little Park Boys (the gang Chang is closest to) who has left the neighborhood after killing a man in a similar manner to Mickey Rourke’s departure from the gang in Coppola’s masterpiece; their opponents are the 217s and it is their conflict and Chang’s inevitable involvement in it that makes up the bulk of the story
Again with this jaw-dropping frame; Chang is in his bed which has a sliding door and the camera pokes through the door at his family as they walk around the house; there is a veil hanging in front of the camera
A fantastic slow tracking shot across the room as we cut outside of the bed and get this stunning frame of the family’s kitchen with a couple doorways and levels of depth to be seen; Yang also opposed to centering these elements in the frame as always
A great frame as Chang is sitting at a speech in a crowd of a bunch of Taiwanese military academy students like himself all wearing that same uniform; unsurprisingly he still is barely off-center in the frame
Sly, an aggressive student who has a rivalry with Chang but nonetheless remains a close associate of his throughout the film, was seen by Chang with a girl the previous night; he now demands Chang not tell anyone he was with her; I can’t remember for certain but I do think the girl was Honey’s girlfriend, Ming
I can’t remember when exactly it was (either a radio broadcast or in the speech a few remarks above) but there is a bit where the confiscation of baseball bats is mentioned and Chang unwittingly causes another student to lose his bat
A stunner of a frame at 22 minutes in a grocery store; yellow lighting galore
A shot through a bunch of bars (like prison cell bars) at 23 minutes; it’s not quite Bresson (not used in that context) but a great frame regardless
Chang goes to his bed and is writing about beating up Sly in his notebook; he has his flashlight right next to him upright as a light
A really nice one of Chang Kuo-chu (playing Chang’s father) and Elaine Jin (mother) in a bus, camera offset to give a view of the opposing road, as blue lights often flash inside of the bus
They pass by a military convoy on their bus trip; I don’t actually think it’s a massive stretch to compare this to Y Tu Mama Tambien as Garcia Bernal and Luna pass by a special police unit preparing a drug raid in a scene of the film in a scene quite like this
At 31 minutes you get the stunning frame of Chang and Cat standing in the doorway that Drake has on the 1991 page; it’s followed by an even greater jaw-dropper of 6 of our characters standing around at various depths in a doctor’s office
A fantastic cutaway to Chang’s and Ming’s shoes at 33 minutes
Followed up by another wall-art quality film of the two as they escape the school by jumping a stone wall; probably not a good idea as Ming has a leg injury
This is also followed up by a great high angle frame showing the two of them in the catwalk like at the beginning
Chang and Ming are observing an ROC Army shooting range exercise as they themselves are being observed by some 217s
And just like that at 38 minutes comes the Letterboxd header for the film
What a bunch of cowards; the 217s approach Chang and he kicks one in the leg and the rest of them just run off like that
Chang’s older brother, Lao Er, and a bunch of the townspeople are in a pool hall now (one of the film’s major locations) and there’s a great frame of everyone gathered around to watch Sly play pool at 42 minutes
There’s another really nice one of the school – on the absolute far right of the frame – obscured by a bunch of trees; great image
I hate to make a call so early but I do think the film is shaping up better with the second viewing; it’s not easy the first time with the massive scope of the plot (I’ve heard there’s like 80 characters total)
Fantastic pink lighting in this strong scene with a band performing at an ice cream parlor; Cat is one of the singers
There is a girl present, Jade, who is rumored to be the girl Chang said Sly was with a few nights ago, but both deny it and Chang himself says he does not think it was Jade but nobody believes him
An absolute stunner at 48 minutes with Chang standing under this neon light in otherwise total darkness shot from a long distance
Yang, you can’t sneak that one past me; Chang’s older sister is trying on a dress and the younger sister points to a page in a magazine with another young woman dressed the same way and the other page has a section dedicated to 16mm films!
Really great shot of Cat and another kid in a motorcycle shop with another man working out inside the shop’s office through the window
Whenever some kids are playing basketball there are these really nice long shots of the entire court with lots of natural light pouring into the room
At 56 minutes a new boy is introduced to the class, and we are informed by Cat that this kid stabbed a student at another high school; this boy, Ma, is one of the major characters throughout the rest of the film
Cat, who is extremely young (maybe 10 at most?), walks up to a street vendor and asks if he has porn and gets it
A really nice tracking shot as Chang is walking with Ming and we briefly shift our gaze to a passing cyclist before Chang and Ming renter the new frame
A stunner at 60 minutes as Chang and Ming enter the film studio, with the lights off, and the two are shown only as silhouettes as the only light pours in from the lights outside; there is a great bit here as Ming balances herself as she walks along a dolly rail
He aims his flashlight up at the catwalk expecting people like him to be up there
At 62 minutes it’s revealed that Honey killed the leader of the 217s which I assume is the origin of their conflict
Chang’s parents are continental refugees who fled to Taiwan from the Chinese Communists
Lao Er, having lost at pool earlier, took his and Chang’s mother’s watch in order to pay off debts he owed due to his defeat
Ming and her mother are at the doctor’s office due to Ming’s asthma and there’s a fantastic frame as Ming stands off to the side in medium-close and in focus as her mother is discussing with the doctor out of focus in the background; just an excellent frame
Wow; I feel like I totally missed this the first time around; we cut to another shot of Ming crying which we at first assume is connected to the previous (and similar) frame but then we find out it’s her screen test; there is a genius wall-art composition using multiple levels of depth of the film crew gathered together observing the test; at one point we cut away to the catwalk and Chang is not there to watch her as she asked of him earlier
This is probably because Chang had allowed Sly to cheat off of him on a test they took earlier in the film and they are now in detention because of it
It’s a very different performance from Chang Chen; he acts like a background character in his own film, constantly emotionless face; I’m pretty sure I touched on this in my first review but it never feels like he personally is the driving force behind the actions in the film up until the final fateful moment at the end
I always loved the scene where Chang and his dad are walking down the street with his bicycles discussing Chang’s demerit; there’s such warmth in Chang Kuo-chu as the dad – I’m reminded a little of Michael Stuhlbarg in Call Me By Your Name
Lao Er is back in the pool hall with the owners and there’s a great segment in this scene where the power goes out and they have to light everything with candles that have this awesome red effect
Great parallel editing in a scene where Chang is about to get beaten up by some 217s over his involvement with Ming (who was involved with the 217 leader that Honey killed) and his friends are breaking his chair in order to use the legs to fight the 217s; we edit between these two segments but Ma, a general’s son, goes out to rescue Chang before a fight breaks out
Absolutely hilarious but as Ming is being talked up romantically by some guy and then he farts in front of her and has a laugh about it with his friends
Great doorway shot of Ming and the doctor as Yang slowly Dollie’s the camera forward
Chang is there as well and he walks past a mirror a couple times appearing in it; we watch Ming leave before the camera tilts into a door as she and Chang are walking around and speaking; great scene
A wonderful shot inside the ice cream parlor showcasing the pastel blues and pinks; there is symmetry between all the tables and there are ROC, USA and UN flags hanging all around the place
The Little Park Boys arrive at the ice cream parlor looking for Ming and we see that Honey – though his identity is not revealed yet – has returned; he has a commanding presence with a jacket he wears over his arms and that distinctive naval cap; he also has extremely baggy pants
Sly is screwing with Chang and refers to him as a “real Gregory Peck”
A bona fide jaw-dropper at 97 minutes as Honey is standing at long distance and 3 of his top gang members (one of them is Deuce – a handsome singer who often works with Cat) also appear in the frame at closer but different depths; Honey then goes and looks out the window to see Ming with Chang
Rolling tracking shot inside the motorcycle shop; very strong
I hate to say it but Yang really should have cast different-looking actors in the roles of Sly and Lao Er; they are extremely hard to tell apart
I very much admire this scene where Honey is holding an audience with Lao Er over the activity that has been taking place in Taipei since his exile that is followed up by this fantastic dialogue between Honey and Chang (mostly a monologue from Honey); at one point there is a cutaway to Ming who is holding Honey’s naval cap; he decides to allow Chang to continue pursuing Ming
Fantastic establishing shots as the concert that has been talked up for the entirety of the film up to this point is finally happening; Chang is there with Ma; Ma shares a few glances with Jade who is there with Sly
I love the one shooting the backs of everybody as they stand at attention for the Taiwanese national anthem; we follow this up by going outside of the theater to everybody else all standing around facing different directions but totally still
Honey arrives at the concert, which was set up by Sly to create peace between the Little Park Boys and the 217s and is the only person not standing at attention; he is barred from entering the building by the 217s.
Honey is somewhat afraid as he believes the Little Park Boys are more loyal to Sly than they are to him; Sly had the pull to organize this concert and a truce between the two gangs, after all
There is a fantastic high angle shot of the two gangs as they both, now, prevent Honey from entering the building; Honey leaves to have a very fateful chat with the new 217 leader, who kills him by pushing him into a moving car
A shockingly rewarding second viewing
A while back Ma was showing everybody his dad’s katanas and gave a few to some of his friends and one of them is showing his around here at the concert
A great shot on the stage blocking off part of the screen with a red curtain
Great shot of the boys playing around with a large tape recorder as they discuss the death of Honey
Another fantastic rolling shot at 120 minutes; this leads us into this great long shot as Ming speaks to Chang about her feelings on Honey’s death while a cleaning lady puts up her equipment behind them
More shots on the basketball court at 122 minutes; the sport has to be a favorite of Yang’s to be so prevalent here
A “WOW!” shot as Chang, Airplane, and Cat stand in one of the hallways at the school surrounded by darkness – I know my description of it doesn’t sound so illuminating (especially given the lighting – haha) but this is one of the film’s best shots
It is implied they are beaten up by some bullies afterward as the next time we see Chang he has a bloody nose; he writes in his journal again, this time about Ming; it is good that this segment of the film comes back
Chang is with Cat and Ma at Cat’s place I believe and he has a lot of Elvis Presley posters up
Chang goes to Ma’s place and they talk about Ming while Ma assembles a shotgun that they go and shoot some trees with in the next scene
Aw yeah; here’s the scene where everybody is watching Rio Bravo (this is around 1959 when that film was made); love the editing between everybody’s faces, particularly the editing between Ma and Jade; I didn’t catch much of it watching this film the first time but when watching The Terrorizers especially I realized Yang is one of cinema’s great editors
After the movie, Chang and Ma go out on a double date with Jade and another girl done completely without speech; Chang is sitting with the girl and after a while they kiss eachother; this surprised me a little as I thought Chang would walk off without doing anything
I really don’t want to sound like I’m praising this film just for being long since I’m not; there is jaw-dropping cinema packed into virtually every second of this film; not a single scene it feels that doesn’t land in this 4-hour runtime
Love the yellow lighting and super long tracking shot as we follow Chang on his bicycle before switching our attention to this drunk guy walking along the street (who I think I recognize from other scenes… I think he’s the owner of a shop Chang’s dad often visits?)
A staggering jaw-dropper as the drunk man stands beside a street light and collapses; a true wall-art frame; actually it might just be the film’s singular shot; the yellow lighting really brings this scene alive
Another great photograph of Chang standing with his bike in the mechanic’s garage as a train passes by; the camera then turns into a great composition of some of the workers in the shop
Satire of Kuomintang government rhetoric about taking back the mainland and killing Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai
We’re back in the pool hall – which I forgot to mention earlier is operated by the 217s – and there’s more of that incredible red-tinged candle lighting and pitch blackness
Nice shot as you can see the Little Park Boys preparing to raid the 217 hangout in the rain; Chang is with them; he and Deuce are assigned to hold the flanks of the LPB offensive
Great intercutting as there is an establishing shot earlier of Sly playing poker at the ice cream parlor where there is a depressed prostitute and we cut back to their after the attack
Genius work with Chang and his flashlight as he explores the remains of the 217 gang, shining his flashlight on the surviving members in their dying moments; a particularly excellent moment as he holds up his katana to Shandong’s, the 217 leader, cleaver
This is followed up by another fantastic scene as Chang’s father is arrested by the Kuomintang for former CCP affiliations; stunning usage of rain during this entire segment of the film going as far back as the pool hall raid
Great imagery with these long hallways, big empty rooms, it looks like dirt and piss (yes, piss) in the Taiwanese prison Chang’s father is in; isolation; it’s a bit of a detour from the film’s main events but it’s a strong sequence; dark lighting at times to exemplify his position
Chang Kuo-chu is excellent in these scenes where he’s in prison; the smallest movement he makes says so much about his character; a big presence
I don’t know Chinese that well but I can tell from the pronunciation of Shanghai that I’m pretty certain the interrogator is speaking to the father in Shanghainese which is the father’s native tongue I believe
A great high-angle frame using some of the columns in the school shot from the side at 163 minutes
Another strong wall-art frame as Chang is in the doctor’s office and puts on a cowboy hat and pretends to be a Western gunslinger; I’m going to say this is formal as he’s probably inspired by watching Rio Bravo here; Ming walks in and there’s a cute scene where he puts the hat on her head
Things do come back in the film; Chang’s being seen with Ming at the shooting range is mentioned again, there’s of course the constant rumors about Sly with a girl at the film’s opening, Honey is constantly spoken of early in the film but we never know if he will ever actually appear…
Low angle shot – from Chang’s POV as we find out in a few seconds – of some of the windows in the girls’ school as he is looking for Ming who goes out to him; she’s made fun of by some of the other girls
We’re back with the dad in the interrogation chamber and the light illuminating the room is swinging; great movement in the shadows over his and the interrogator’s faces
Stunning imagery of the father totally alone in the cell before cutting away to the open door to his freedom with the beautiful flowering trees
His first action is to go to the shop where he is at at the beginning of the film where his wife also happens to go and there’s a fantastic scene where they just stare at eachother for a while
Chang Kuo-chu and Jin are in bed now and they’re shot at a high angle through the veil that seems to cover everyone’s beds in Taiwan
Yang has a cast of characters here that normally would take a full season of a TV show to flesh out at least and he does so in 4 hours of 1 film
A basketball player named Tiger is performing poorly, which I believed is because he has failed romantic aspirations towards Ming, who he’s seen looking at throughout the film; Chang and Ming talk about a man who is attracted to her and yet is suffering in life in the very next scene, which has this strong editing sequence between the two as a military convoy passes by them on the road
“A lot of guys say the love me, but the minute there’s trouble they all run away.” This is from a great scene between she and the doctor talking about their love lives
A formal moment of absolute genius as Chang picks up the baseball bat he lost 3 hours ago after getting yet another demerit like 2 hours ago and smashes a light in the principal’s office; we cut away to this staggering shot of everybody in the room (11 people) staring straight at the camera at different depths of field and covering the whole frame; this is followed up by the same tracking shot of Chang and his dad walking their bikes and they have virtually the same conversation as they did after the first demerit
I’ve heard Chang walk by a street seller saying “Dumplings and buns!” or “Buy some buns!” a billion times now; great form, not criticizing
An Excalibur-like shot (think of the one with that epic tree) of Chang and Ming sitting together at a tree by Chang’s bike at 191 minutes
Chang is hanging out with Ma, Cat and Airplane and they’re pretending to be ROC soldiers on patrol; among is with them as well
Ming, as a joke, holds one of Ma’s 1911s on Chang and accidentally fires like some idiot; thankfully, it held a blank and all she gets as punishment is a hard slap from Ma
Even the smallest aspects of the film, like a short cutaway just to Chang doing some homework, have the greatest of emotion contained within them; an absolute picture of Taiwanese society
Yep; I’m pretty sure now (don’t know about The Terrorizers) that there’s discussion about moving to America, like Yang did, in all of his films; Chang’s sister talks about heading stateside after graduating college
Chang’s middle sister reads his diary and sees his entry “The score with Sky will be settled by this day,” and sure enough we cut to the ice cream parlor run by the prostitute where Chang is sitting, and Sly goes to meet him there; Sly tries to make amends, but when he informs Chang that Ming has been seeing Ma, Chang isn’t really having it and Sly gets a hard slap in the face, but unlike Chang does not hold it against him; it is significant but also a bit jarring how much their characters have changed over time
He goes to see Ma right afterwards and most of their conversation takes place off-screen to emphasize the divide between Chang and the other characters that has developed over time; Ma insults Chang’s ability to provide for Ming like Honey could as well
An incredible shot of Chang looking like he’s hanging from a cross like Jesus surrounded by light at 206 minutes; his fall from grace
The mother’s watch has been stolen again; whereas the first time the sister blamed Chang but it was found to be Lao Er, this time she blames Lao are but it is understood to be Chang.
Chang, having lost Ming, is now going out with Jade to the movies, while Lao Er is going to the pool hall – which I’m surprised is still operating after the raid – to make a shitload of money
I couldn’t remember specifically from the first viewing but I had always expected that the reason Sly was so hostile to Chang hanging with Ming was because he would figure out he had been seeing Ming and it would get to Honey; Jade informs us of this here
A punishing long shot as the father, having lost everything – his job, his money… – beats Lao Er over the suspicion of the watch, which Chang had taken instead; Lao Er came home with a lot of money – finally winning at pool – to buy the watch back after Chang sold it but it was suspected that he got the money instead from selling the watch
Chang is in bed, talking I think to middle sister, when she says something that Honey had said to him once and he asks her if she had ever read War and Peace, a question Honey had asked him once
He goes to Ma’s house and they have at with eachother over Ming, so Cat goes to Chang to try to get them to make amends but fails
“She acts all natural-“ “Natural? You can’t even tell real from fake! How can you make movies?” Interesting commentary if this here represents a part of Yang’s worldview
Chang standing on the street with his knife at 221 minutes waiting for Ming; a beautiful frame
Incredible form here! Way back in the film there’s a scene where Ming is calling out Chang’s name as he runs to avoid her out into the market square but she catches up to him, and here, as he’s about to kill here, the very exact thing happens
The way they sort of move around together as he stabs her sort of looks like a couple having sex maybe?
When the family hears Chang has been arrested, middle sister, who he was closest to, runs in with tears pouring out of her eyes as father goes in without any expression on his face
Ma is being questioned as well because he gave everybody the swords that were used A) to commit the pool hall raid and B) to kill Ming; he appears nonchalant and uncaring when questioned but once alone, he breaks down having been an active participant in the loss of his greatest friend in Chang
Ming once remarked to Chang that she felt her doctor had affections for her and sure enough we get a scene with him showing his devastation as well over her death as he walks through his garden that had appeared previously
Just like at the beginning of the film we get the intertitles, here describing Chang’s initial death sentence which was later commuted to 16 or so years
More utterly staggering form here as Cat delivers a tape to Chang in prison describing his delivery of a performance of an Elvis song he made that he later sent to Elvis, who was impressed and sent Cat a ring; as this happens we watch Cat walk a very long distance before he leaves the screen and we cut; additionally the phrase “A Brighter Summer Day” can be heard
I believe the family is moving here and little sister accidentally knocks over the radio and turns it on, and we hear a radio broadcast of the names of the exceptional students like at the beginning of the film as the mother is doing laundry and comes across his school uniform, which she slowly brings close to her chest as more and more names are spoken
I did give up a chance to watch The Long Goodbye and The Bird With The Crystal Plumage to catch this again but I’m not sure I regret it; they stream for free with ads anyway so I guess it doesn’t really matter.
I was flat wrong the first time for sure having this as only a borderline masterpiece
I can’t deny I think it may be slightly superior to Yi Yi which is currently in my Top 40; A Brighter Summer Day is a massive achievement
A towering masterpiece
One thing I think I forgot to mention is, in the scenes with the repetition, you can note the difference in the emotions of the characters as they have received their various punishments over the course of the movie. For example, in the first demerit scene with Chang and his father, both seem relatively dismissive of the event and assume Chang will still get through school just fine; the father tells the principal he “doesn’t care about demerits.” In the second scene, however, both have become utterly disillusioned to the world around them; the father had just suffered in prison and was demoted afterwards and notes that if Chang is demerited again, he cannot move up to the next grade, despite his claim that demerits are irrelevant in the past, and Chang likewise has come to learn nothing but violence in his interactions with the other young men he knows and has lost his faith in the world all the same, and when both walk along the street having much the same conversation as in the past, neither seem to have that strong of a belief in their words as they had before.
Yi Yi:
A very strong opening with the fade in from black at the marriage followed by the fade out; this is followed by this great montage of the extended family as they socialize and pose together during this opening marriage set to piano music
Yang’s final film – he would die of cancer in 2007 though he did have plans to make an 8th film before his death; won Best Director at Cannes
Surprisingly early we get that famous shot with the balloons and the neon sign in red; I expected it to be more than 2 minutes into the film before it happened
A lot of Yang’s directorial style makes a lot of the characters standing around in the background appear as just bodies in the frame lying around
A masterful Bresson-like frame with a fence dividing these men moving boxes at 4 minutes
Maggie Cheung is not the only lady wearing a cheongsam in 2000; Kelly Lee does so here as well
Yang is a slow mover of the camera – not as slow as Tarkovsky but slow surely
A great frame as Lee is watching a young couple kids from the top of the balcony in their apartment looking very down
Like Brighter this film looks more at the younger members of Taiwanese society than his other films which predominantly focus on people of Yang’s own age
Some comedy via editing here as Jonathan Chang (the kid) is having a bad time at the post-wedding dinner so we cut to him and Wu at McDonald’s where he is much happier
A really strong long hold on a frame as Wu sees his ex-lover (played by Kelly Ko) while heading to the elevator with Chang
There’s a great long frame shooting the whole of the entourage as they party around surrounded by the balloons at 15 minutes
Great usage of white in this scene in a hospital like Syndromes and a Century though this is probably completely unlike that film
Wow; the White Nights kind of smooth transition into a different kind of shot as the camera is turned to show the characters in this scene in their reflection on a window by them
Also like Brighter there are a metric ton of characters here so you better watch damn close to be able to tell everyone apart
Another really great Rule of Thirds frame as the teacher who just abused Chang and the hall monitor girl are speaking
Great shot with 3 lights throughout the frame as a man is playing the cello I think?
There is exactness in the frame here as Lee is speaking to one of her teachers and her reflection can be barely seen in a mirror on the absolute left edge of the frame
Another really beautiful cluttered shot in an outside eatery in the city
The first true jaw-droppers come in these shots where some of the businessmen (including Wu and I think his brother-in-law Cheng) are driving through the city and the reflections of various skyscrapers can be seen at different angles
Great one with Cheng and I think his new wife in a cafe shot through the window so you can see more reflections passing on the windows
It is worth noting that the takes are longer here than they are in The Terrorizers – they are long in Brighter as well of course – but seeing it compared to what he achieves in editing in The Terrorizers kinda makes me miss that film
Another stunner as Lee and her friend depart after meeting in the city streets under an overpass
A gorgeous doorway shot at 29 minutes; hard to believe this is like the first in the film I think considering how many are in his others
Really nice work with sound as characters’ voices will appear more distant as they walk further away from the scene
We watch the couple again – one of the two is Lee’s friend – as they appear to break up
Yang isn’t quite the master of darkness in the way Fincher, Coppola, or Resnais could be described but there’s a nice scene where Lee escapes her room during the night to go speak to her dying grandmother which is stronger than the immediate preceding one with Cheng
Lots of soft green lighting in this scene in an office where there are also these birds that keep appearing everywhere; a great frame using depth as Wu looks out a window whilst his coworkers are behind him
Long take of one of the office workers with a bird perched on his shoulder; beautiful shot
Another doorway shot at 43 minutes followed by another gorgeous one with yellow doors on the sides of the frame; Edward I demand more of these (and I got them as he moves the camera to showcase yet another one right afterward)
More deadpan comedy (Jarmusch perhaps an influence) as Lee goes out with her parents’ friend’s boring daughter to see a movie and we get this really awesome frame of the two of them looking away from the camera over balcony with blue neon lights to their left followed by another pretty long shot of the two inside a musical instrument shop
Another beautiful frame of the two inside of a cafe looking out as some boys are partying behind them very loudly – the film’s usage If characters in the periphery of the frame gets stronger with time
The film is at its most compelling when it feels like A Brighter Summer Day, such as this scene where an army soldier who joins the troop above considers approaching the friend after Lee leaves her but sadly Yang doesn’t follow through with it and make the film even more interesting
A really great tracking shot at a dinner between Wu and his client I think at dinner; the shot starts with Wu before slowly moving over to the other man who gives a stirring performance in his scene here in the exact same position as McConnaughey in The Wolf of Wall Street hyping Wu up
Another strong rolling shot of the two men as they get in Wu’s car to exit; the hype man who speaks in English instead of Mandarin or Taiwanese for some reason, starts to whistle along to the music Wu is playing
We’re in the club now with the two of them – I guess we moved on from all the scenes with Lee for now and are now watching Wu – and the lights in the club keep flying around everywhere; after a while the friend (who I just realized is Ogata since Wu said he is Japanese) is now playing the piano, it is Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata
Elliptical sound as Ogata’s piano playing continues even as the scene changes to Wu in his office in complete darkness as he calls maybe his ex-lover? Really strong frame using a profile shot of him in total silhouette
Doorway shot at 58 minutes; I just wish they weren’t so dialed back from Yang’s last film as he is the master of this kind of shot
Elaine Jin is breaking down in front of Wu (husband) as she doesn’t have anything to say this night to her dying mother; there’s a mirror behind her that after a while we can kind of see Wu in I think
It is kinda shameful that Wu is trying to reconnect with Ko while his wife is dealing with the pending death of her mother
Some nice external frames of an apartment with a domestic dispute; actually which apartment it is isn’t clear but I’d be surprised if it isn’t the Jians; those present who are not arguing turn off the lights and the cars far down below appear in the reflections
Really nice shot with a few doorways present in a parking garage; yes Yang there you go
Another one with Jin staring out the window of her office with the lights off as the lights come on and illuminate everything behind her; again with the reflections of the city shown on the window; an absolute jaw-dropper here
Finally at 64 minutes Jonathan Chang finally gets out the camera and starts walking around taking pictures with it; great usage of the flash occasionally appearing as lighting along with a really nice camera track into another shot as Chang speaks to another tenant
A staggering track as Lee enters the apartment and the camera shifts angle to show Jin in the corner looking out the window; I do mean staggering; a true wower
Another inside Wu’s office shooting him on the other side of a window to display the reflections of the other workers and later him as he walks away
Again, we’re in his car and like earlier we can see the places he passes by reflect of his windshield like any movie set in Las Vegas
Chang is back at school again and all of the fellow kids have yellow shirts
A really nice editing montage actually as Chang goes to buy camera film!
We’re watching him in these security cameras and it over time pans around to show which camera he can be seen in; he is eventually captured by some of the hall monitors and then lambasted for his utterly random pictures by the teacher in front of the hall monitors
Lee meets her friend’s ex-boyfriend again and asks if they are still together; he implies not and asks Lee to deliver a letter to the friend; Lee clearly wants to ask him out herself but cannot and he leaves. We then cut to the friend and the army soldier who she has now entered a relationship with; their reflections can be seen on the tile wall behind them
Lee is growing a plant as part of a school project that I stupidly have paid little mind to up until this moment; there’s a scene here where she seems to reflect upon her mistakes I suppose as she stares at the plant
I don’t know about this scene watching Chang on the toilet as he examines the condom he found earlier (which I forgot to mention)
Jaw-dropper with a table and a chair on the edges of the slight doorway frame and gorgeous lighting inside the room as Wu is speaking to a friend (who if off-screen) at 78 minutes; would hang on my wall!
The angle Yang uses here to shoot the elevators in the building recurs including here as Cheng comes to the apartment and is avoiding Wu
More stunning mise-en-scene at 80 minutes as Cheng is in his apartment; computer, TV, a mirror, he stands next to a planted tree; really fantastic shot!
A neighboring couple are having sex in the other room and they can be heard very loudly
Another beautiful one as Cheng and the wife are in an empty apartment; the use of architecture to show their isolation here echoes Antonioni
Wow! An incredible frame at 83 minutes! Cabinets, overturned stools, crap strewn everywhere, a blowing curtain in the background in the film’s best image so far!
More stuff with the balloons as Chang and some of his friends lob a water balloon over the abusive teacher; they hide in a planetarium that is playing a meteorology video
So there’s some subplot here with how Chang is attracted to an older hall monitor and she walks into the planetarium as her kit is caught upwards exposing her panties to his viewing; she stands in front of the planetarium screen as Chang watches the storm around here; amazing work
More sad Antonioni ennui as Lee again sees the ex-boyfriend. Both of them are in the rain and the two walk towards eachother only in editing which is beautiful; eventually we get the two of them in one frame and they argue about how Lee is tired of delivering letters and he thinks (rightfully) that she may be seeing other men. After a while the scene cuts and they are now at dinner shot through a window
An extremely powerful context-free scene as Lee goes to visit the friend and… what the hell? Is she having an affair with her music teacher? He and his wife are there and without much clothes on and they put their clothes back on as Lee watches and the friend runs around the apartment screaming at them before going for a high pitched sonic match cut that mixes into the birth of Cheng’s child
Cheng looks in the window at his baby and his reflection is shown; he’s now in the hospital room with the wife and there a TV next to them with footage of the baby and the nurse holding him
High school reunion here and it’s a catastrophe; a fight begins between Cheng’s wife (Hsiao) and another crazy woman at the party and Cheng is forced to leave right as Wu arrives; there’s a great scene of the two in a car shot with their heads facing away from the camera
Stunning blocking at 97 minutes with this Swiss cheese looking object in Cheng’s house; a really pretty shot of him surrounded by his beautiful furniture looking as if he’s literally surrounded and his life is crashing down on him; considering he’s had financial troubles and yet owns all this nice stuff I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s literally what Yang’s going for
A jaw-dropper of a tracking shot through their house as Hsiao arrives and it’s implied Cheng has just killed himself; the bath is running and he probably slit his wrists
Blocking with the sides of a doorframe as she looks over the near-dead Cheng; we do see he has survived in the next scene at that his actions were accidental and what happened was a gas leak
If this film weren’t so widely-acclaimed, I wonder if Yang would get the attention he gets today. I think this is the film that made many put him ahead of Hou (though not TSPDT as they still have The Terrorizers far lower than it should be – like 1500 spots which is insane; Yang is at #65 or so and Hou at #49)
Cheng and Wu are now at the mansion of a wealthy businessmen and there are Western people at his pool
More content with Lee as she’s followed around by the ex-boyfriend; she at first dismissed him seeing as he has another letter but accepts it when he tells her it’s for her
An absolutely gorgeous car shot – I’m assuming through the city of Tokyo, where Wu is now going to meet Ogata again – with a green filter gazing out officer the city skyline; it’s one of the best scenes in all of Edward Yang
Another one of these electric scenes with Issey Ogata speaking to Wu and I also think Wu’s ex-lover Ko who he has seen in Tokyo
Architecture scenes as we look over this train station with all of the train lines running above the trains; we get a voiceover as the two are laughing about their pasts
Another doorway shot (this time literally with the door itself and it’s knob in the frame) as Lee tries on an outfit probably for her date
Great one tracking Wu and Ko as they walk around a train station surrounded by many Japanese businessmen waiting to go to work; this leads us into this brilliant scene juxtaposing and editing between the two romances between Wu and Ko and Lee and her new boyfriend
A jaw-dropping frame that may make you say “holy shit!” coming in at 110 minutes with street signs, roads with different elevations, architecture everywhere, and a passing train at the very top of the frame; it reminds me a lot of the Maggie Cheung – Andy Lau scenes in Days of Being Wild; this amazing frame is probably top 3 in the film so far – literally every inch of the frame is filled
There’s that famous quote “My uncle once said ‘We live three times as long since man invented movies,’ it means movies give us twice what we get from daily life”
Yet another frame; perhaps the film’s best, of Wu and Ko in Japan walking along in a forest shown from afar; there are these massive trees entirely surrounding them and making for some of the prettiest mise-en-scene I’ve yet seen
Followed up by yet another shot that could be from Greenaway’s The Belly of an Architect showing the two standing about these columns in a Japanese temple
There are WAY too many of these awesome shots including this awesome long shot of the Wu and Ko walking up a long set of stairs; I can see why Yang called this film “One by One” it’s one-by-one with each of these incredible frames
The two are sitting on a bench again and they’re surrounded by birds like the ones Wu saw in his office earlier
Again; they’re walking down this path that looks just like the father-son shot from How Green Was My Valley and there are these birdhouses or whatever (probably way off) on the side of the frame, some are close and some are far; literally too many good frames here
Chang, now sporting a Kuomintang flag hanging off his backpack, goes to the pool and sees the hall monitor swimming there; he just sort of watches her when the film cuts
Lee is putting on a nice dress in a great doorway shot in her room all the while Chang seems to be trying to drown himself or something in the sink? Holding his breath? A bizarre scene but I really admire it
Lee opens up the door to her apartment and sees the friend there waiting for her, looking very peeved; she walks over and Yang holds this frame of them for a painfully long time as Lee is unable to admit that she is in a relationship with the boyfriend
A really great frame of two performers playing the piano and cello as Lee and the boyfriend are watching them; he seems very focused but her expression is harder to read, she doesn’t seem as interested, maybe she’s still a bit worried about losing her friend (I found out later that the two musicians here are Yang himself and his wife as the pianist and cellist, respectively)
A great frame in total darkness as the two meet at their usual spot by the overpass and he tries to convince her to stay
It is a definite choice from Yang to have the street lights nearby turn red – the color of love – as they kiss
They’re now renting a hotel room, presumably to have sex; there is total darkness in the room as he enters armed tries to find the lights while she stays out in the bright hall staring at her feet; it is a beautiful shot
They sort of stare at their feet as they find difficulty in moving forward; he eventually says it’s not the right time and leaves the room; she’s left to walk home alone on the street and she eventually gets home and lays at her grandmother’s side (she is very attached to the grandmother)
We’re back in Japan and Wu is with Ko walking by the beach (are you ever going back to Taiwan?); we then cut to this beautiful long shot of the two in a restaurant alone, there’s a moving escalator inside. They too rent a hotel room before moving up the escalator (combined restaurant-hotel?)
There is a flickering light in the hotel; a wall-art quality shot looking down the hallway into the rooms
A silhouette of Wu at 128 minutes; he’s sitting by this beautiful wallpaper smoking a cigarette; another of the film’s greatest images
She tries to convince him to leave his wife as she will also leave her husband, which he will of course have to do while his wife’s mother is dying; he refuses and she breaks down accusing him of never loving her which she has done quite a few times now actually whenever they meet
The film has a slow start to its visual brilliance; but particularly starting around 45 minutes this is a massive visual avalanche filled with some of the greatest shots in all of cinema; here’s one of Wu perched at the end of a pier as the waves crash by him along the beach and he looks down at his shows reflecting on his mistakes
He is on a train with Ko now and whatever it is they are rushing past (literally moving too quickly to tell) can be seen in the reflection of the outside window
He takes her back to her hotel room and as she is closing her door, he tells her “I never loved anyone else,” before she closes it and he leaves. She then sobs herself to death in her room as some of the architecture of Japan, including a remake of the Eiffel Tower, can be seen in the reflection
Right after this we’re treated to another Issey Ogata scene that is shot very similarly to the dinner scene in the Asian restaurant in The Conformist; he explains some magic tricks to Wu with playing cards
Another one of these slow transition into a mirror shots that appear too little in this already-visually-packed film; he’s on the phone and after a while the call ends and we are pulled back into the real world but then Wu is called again and the camera actually follows him instead of the mirror
He goes to knock on Ko’s door and she is not there; he calls reception to find out where she has gone and finds out she has not left any messages for him; a stunning frame of him looking totally dejected slumped over, shot from behind
Great shot looking way up at the skies at 143 minutes
Lee is walking to her apartment when she sees the boyfriend has gone ahead and gotten back together with the ex and takes her around with him
Another one of these amazing frames as we look into Wu’s bedroom through a window as cars appear in the reflection and Lee gives him some medicine or whatever; at this point I can’t remember the last time I saw Jin
Another one of him looking outside his window; the set design here is just fantastic, very muted colors like Eastwood in a few years
Wu is lookin through a lot of the pictures Chang has taken and they’re all shots of the backs of people’s heads which harkens to the cover of the film (not the original cover I know), which is the back of Chang’s head
Chang tries to get into the pool and swim to be like that girl, despite not even wearing a swimsuit, and he cannot; does he drown? Oh no
Lee is walking home in the rain and sees the boyfriend; they cannot bear to look at each other – it is so good on Yang’s part that he can prevent the relationships in his films from appearing melodramatic – she tries to offer her friendship to him but he demands that she never go near him again; I suppose he didn’t have room only for her in his heart
Good, Chang didn’t just kill himself in that pool (I was worried because I know this film ends with a funeral)
Lee is at her desk again crying her eyes out over her relationship failures over the course of the film
A shot looking up at the moon as the nighttime clouds pass it by at 151 minutes
Another one with Lee breaking down by her grandmother’s side; there are Venetian blinds and red and blue flashing lights outside; are they police? (Yes they are actually and we cut to them in just a second)
Beautiful set design with chairs and tables at 153 minutes
Not too unlike the ending of A Brighter Summer Day we are now in a police station (some great shots in here); I’m assuming the boyfriend committed a crime?
Yes, he has, he killed the teacher that the other girlfriend was involved with a while back, haha wow; they even show the murder in some kind of fighting game and then there’s a shot of Lee walking past the dead man’s blood that has still not been cleaned up?
She goes and sits by her desk again and picks up the plant (which I recalled about 30 minute ago that we had not seen the plant for a while actually) and stares at it for a short bit
I think they’re in the grandmother’s room again and for the first time I see she has a picture of Cary Grant that I guess I completely missed earlier?
Grandma has finally died and Cheng is now on the phone trying to make accommodations for a funeral; more great doorway shots from their King, Edward Yang, appearing as one would expect here
Finally after like, what, 2 hours? 1.5 maybe? Elaine Jin finally comes back – I forgot she had gone on a mountain trip – as her mother has now died; she speaks with Wu on their bed and he is slightly out of focus speaking behind her
Not unlike the wedding at the beginning Yang mostly shoots the funeral in these long shots arranged in montage; a favorite of men is this Antonioni one with a column dividing these two windows as some characters are crying by the side of the casket and others watch on the other side of the column
Another How Green Was My Valley shot as I think Wu and Cheng are walking down the street with the trees above them
I know Hou Hsiao-hsien is a massive admirer of Amarcord (great taste man!) so I’m assuming Yang probably liked it somewhat as well, and I wonder if the failure of the characters in that film to achieve their romantic aspirations influenced Yang’s decision not to have Chang approach the hall monitor whatsoever in this film
A stirring scene as Chang reads a poem to Grandma as his parents and sister watch; really punishing; a bit of humor actually as we’re reminded that Cheng still has not named his son by now!
Looking back I wonder if Fatty was planning the murder of the teacher at the time he met and was screaming at Lee, I think that was the same place he killed the teacher at, I’m assuming he did so just to get her away since he didn’t want to kill her as well? If so that’s a long prison sentence for lying in wait…
Might just be the best film I’ve seen dating as far back as Gertrud and The Cook, The Thief in July or possibly dating as far back as The Grand Illusion, The Rules of the Game and High and Low in June.
A colossal masterpiece
@Harry- thank you for your help here
I’m really excited to hear your thoughts on Yang once you are able to revisit his films. I watched Yi Yi last night and I think it and A Brighter Summer Day are huge masterpieces and would easily be in my top 100 if I were to make one. You of course mention this a lot on this page, but I gained a greater appreciation for Yang’s magnificent mise en scene once I began making the connections to Ozu, particularly the way he blocks the frame and uses the Shoji doors to frame shots. Even his narratives, especially in Yi Yi, take a lot from Ozu, with the emphasis on familial/generational relationships. I think Yang could skyrocket up this list with another study of his work.
@Chase- Thank you for the note here- good work. I think my Ozu study in 2018 changed the way (hopefully improved) the way I watch films. And all of my Yang viewings were prior to that study. I am alternating between a Park Chan-wook and Seijun Suzuki study right now and am not sure what I’m doing next- but Edward Yang is on my short list.