Hello everyone, happy Chinese new year and welcome to this matinee screening of "Yi Yi," or known in English as "A One and a Two," a wonderful film directed by Edward Yang.

Today's introduction will be in English, as we are very happy to have some Taiwanese guests in the audience. To them, I apologise in advance for any mispronunciations of Chinese, but we'll try our best.

We're delighted to see such a turnout on a Sunday afternoon for a Taiwanese classic from over two decades ago. You might wonder why we've chosen to focus on the Taiwanese New Wave for our film festival. However, in exactly three hours, you'll understand why. The movies featured this weekend underscore the profound impact and sheer beauty of Taiwan's New Wave, with "Yi Yi" being a standout example.

Before delving into "Yi Yi," I'd like to provide some context on the New Wave movement, Edward Yang, and the significance of this film.

LIFE & NEW WAVE

Edward Yang was born in China in 1947, but migrated to Taiwan with his parents two years later amid political upheaval. The historical backdrop is crucial: the eruption of the Chinese civil war in 1949 and the rise of communism led to the relocation of the nationalist government, known as the KMT, to Taiwan. Taiwan, having endured Japanese occupation for nearly five decades, found itself under Chinese governance once more. A lot of people fled with the KMT, under the understanding that this would be a temporary situation, and soon they would be able to return to the motherland. They were referred to as 'mainlanders' in Taiwan, a term often echoed in New Wave cinema.

The people behind the New Wave cinema of the 80's were not these first generation immigrants, but their kids, a second generation that was mostly born in Taiwan, but raised by Chinese parents, along Chinese traditions and culture. While their parents still cherished this ‘return to the motherland’ dream, this new generation was confronted with the reality that this may never happen. So we have this generation torn between two countries, neither Chinese nor Taiwanese. And this became the baseline of the New Wave movement: a search for identity. Many of the films from this era depict coming of age movies about young protagonists yearning for a sense of belonging. So often times, the coming of age of a character is parallelled with the coming of age of the nation Taiwan.

So how did Yang end up in this cinematic Wave?

Born in China, raised in Taiwan, his parents sent him to America after high school, to study engineering. He completed his studies and found work in America as an engineer. There was a brief period where he enrolled in film school, but he backed out of that after a few months, since it was too commercial for his taste. His real cinematic awakening, according to legend, was during a screening of Aguirre, Wrath of God by German filmmaker Werner Herzog. During the screening he realised: If this is cinema, then that is what I want to do. But this did not result in immediate action. It was only by accident, a few years later, that an old Taiwanese friend called him up and said: "I need someone to write me filmscript. Weren’t you into films or something?" So Yang returned to Taiwan to work on the script. One thing led to another, and in 1982 he was invited to direct a short film, which would be featured in an anthology film called In Our Time, which we screened here this Friday. In many ways, this movie marks the genesis of the New Wave, so Yang was at the very beginning of it. To Taiwanese audiences this movie was a shock: before this Taiwanese cinema existed only of government produced propaganda films that promoted happy rural life, or highly commercial melodrama and martial arts films from Hong Kong.

A group of young filmmakers suddenly gathered, and what followed was a creative outburst. As Yang said: “By the time I had a chance to make films, Taiwan from a political viewpoint was at the lowest point in its history. In 1979 Jimmy Carter recognised mainland China as the official government of China. That was a big blow to Taiwan’s self-confidence and self-esteem. But for my generation, that low point, was actually a high point. It encouraged us to have confidence, to rely on ourselves. (...) There was big burst of creative energy because all the old formalities had gone to pieces and now it was a brand- new world. Nothing really stands, so let’s do something. That’s the best chance for creativity.”

In this period, Yang functioned as the ‘ring leader’ of the New Wave group. Screenwriters, directors, actors, would gather at his house, where he screened European movies and played American music. In those first years a tight group emerged, inspiring each other's work in all aspects. For example: Yang plays a small part in A Summer at Grandpa’s, from another very important director called Hou Hsiao Hsien, the film you will see tonight. In turn, Hou played the lead role in Yangs Taipei Story. Hou even mortgaged his house to help finance the movie. And the main character of the film you’re about to see, Yi Yi, is played by Wu Nien-jen, who wrote the script for A Summer at Grandpa’s.

OEUVRE

Although they were a tight group, Yang from very early on distinguished himself. His time in America had given him a different perspective on Taiwan. He was struck by how rapidly Taiwan was changing and modernising. So his films became more analytical of modern city life, and not very historical, like for example Hou Hsiao-hsien’s movies. His focus on the city of Taipei especially, earned him the title of "city poet of the middle class”. While Hou’s films are more overtly political, Yang depicts societal changes through their impact on modern couples and families.

As you will see in this movie as well, Yang distinguished himself also by his clear inspiration by European arthouse, especially by Italian filmmaker Antonioni and the psychological correlation between the state of mind of the characters, and the environment they find themselves in. Yang stores a lot of information in where a character stands in the room, which room, how it is furnished. The camerawork can feel distant at times, but always ask yourself: why is this character in the room he is in? And how is he framed within it? Yang said about the use of close-ups: “We better have enough reason not to need to see the body language, the way the character interacts with the space he’s in.” Yang proves we don’t need close-ups to convey emotional intensity, which was a huge contrast with the commercial melodrama movies at the time.

His use of long shots, often very distanced, is a direct result of the earlier cinema they were rebelling against. Yang said in an interview: “I wouldn’t intentionally put in my viewpoint on a situation. I want to bring up something as naturally, as neutrally as possible, and let viewers have their own viewpoint. That’s my intention in all my work - otherwise it would be propaganda.”

YI YI

Now, to Yi Yi. Sadly, this movie, which is hailed as his masterpiece, was the last film he would make. Yang died in 2007 after years of battling cancer. With this movie, he would be the very first, but not the last, Taiwanese director to win the Best Director prize at the Cannes Film Festival. This is also where the movie premiered, since due to his difficult relations with the Taiwanese media, he refused to release his film in Taiwan. Only in 2017, 10 years after his death, it had an official release in his homeland.

Yi Yi provides a good entryway into his oeuvre, since it is in many ways a typical Yang movie. It features his beloved Taipei, and studies a family, and the generation gap that exists between them in modern day Taiwan. All his beloved themes found a way into his masterpiece: tradition versus modernity, a search for identity and urban alienation. In terms of style Yi Yi is vintage Yang: his use of silence to create tension between characters and his use of long shots permits you to feel as if you were in the room with the characters, and quietly analysing the situation. He uses a lot of offscreen dialogue: sometimes he’ll focus on one character, and hear another character talking who is not shown. This enforces a feeling of separation, of emotional distance between the characters in the viewer. And notice his use of the colour red: red is a symbol for good luck in Chinese culture.

You will also see Yang for a brief moment, he has a cameo together with his wife Kai-Li: she is playing the cello, he the piano. His wife was a professional pianist who played all the piano parts in this movie.

PLOT

Without spoiling too much, I quickly want to mention the most important characters of the movie. The first few scenes introduce a lot of characters at once, so it can smoothen your viewing of the movie a bit to have a frame of reference.The film focuses on the Jiang family. We have the father, NJ, and his wife, Min-Min. Their son and daughter have the lovely names of Yang-Yang and Ting-Ting. The grandmother lives with them as well. The film starts at a wedding, this is the wedding of NJ’s brother A- Di, who’s marrying Xiao Yan.

The film works as a complex dance: with family’s relationships coming together and growing apart.It’s a three hour movie, so maybe your mind will wander off for a bit, maybe you have to go the bathroom, that’s completely fine. Just lean back, enjoy the beautiful camerawork, look at how he frames these shots, and why, and just enjoy this beautiful piece of filmmaking.