It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Why are we afraid of the first time? Every day in life is a first time. Every morning is new. We never live the same day twice. We're never afraid of getting up every morning. Why? - Ota NJ is a middle-class father living an ordinary life in his middle-class apartment in Taiwan. he must confront the reasons why he abandoned his ex-lover 30 years ago, while he also struggle to retain his sense of thinking that work is still important. his wife, Min-Min, having trouble in her mind, that she feels an emptiness in her life when she must take care her old mother who suffered a coma. her young daughter, Ting-Ting, feeling guilty about the illness of her old grandma, she cannot sleep every night thinking that she's the one who responsible for it. Yang-Yang, NJ's young son, the boy who always teased by a bunch of young girls at his school, asking an unanswered question: "Daddy, you can't see what I see and I can't see what you see. So how can I know what you see?". I remember the first time i watched a drama about how everyday life was portrayed so beautifully like Magnolia and American Beauty. i was so amazed by its storyline, screenplay, editing and the chemistry between all cast. This movie was way more beautiful in every sector. The cast was superbly drawn, the dialogues were eloquent and purely delivers us a fantastic conversation, the directing was mind blowing, the script was brilliant as well as the screenplay was flawlessly flowing naturally. There's also so many perfectly taken shots and the editing was very good.The very essence of this beautiful masterpiece, from my point of view, is how Edward Yang as a writer and director want us to see, there is a second side to every story, and the perception of that side promises new awakenings. Why is the world so different from what we thought it was? Now that you're awake and see it again... has it changed at all? Now I've closed my eyes... the world I see... is so beautiful - Ting-Ting

Loosely translated "Yi Yi" means "one and one", and as we all know this makes two. By using the same pictograph that represents one to represent two (by simply repeating it) a link is established and we've learned something which isn't only of mathematical value: Individuals are never alone. They are born into a family, live with each other in communities and exert an influence. All have to deal with the same situations in life, only from different view points and at different ages, whether it is about growing up, first and later love, marriage, providing for the family, sickness, age or death. We make our choices and choices make us what we are, but it are the others which help us to see what we never would be able to. Eight year old photographer-"philosopher" Yang-Yang has a point in this regard when he shoots pictures showing only the back of persons' heads...Sure, Edward Yang's "Yi Yi" is also a portrait of the clash of modernization with traditional Chinese values in a Taiwanese family, but foremost it presents us multiple layers of three generations of one family and how everyone copes with it, and that is something universal to take away from it. In many ways one finds one's self reminded of the great Japanese filmmaker Ozu - life takes center stage, no need to make a movie that is literally more than life. Long and slow paced, "Yi Yi" takes its time to let the viewer get to know the characters and follow the diverse paths each one of them takes in the midst of their daily routines. After a while one becomes almost part of the family and enjoys how the mosaic of pieces fits together, even though everything is far from perfect. The film depicts family life in a subtle and understated way, it's an empathetic, humane piece of screen poetry, call it a contemporary Ozu if you like. Indeed, Yang's camera helps us see what we might never be be able to capture otherwise. Like little Yang-Yang. With that camera. Yang-Yang, which is Yang repeated, right?

Just as South-Korea so has Taiwan risen to the world of cinema in the beginning of the 21st century and Yi yi (A One and a Two) by Edward Yang is one of the top films of Taiwan. Many critics, magazines and sites have listed Yi yi in the lists of the best films of the decade and due to that the film has gained quite a reputation. But the reputation doesn't mean that this would be an easy treat or a pretentious art-house flick. Win of the best director at Cannes and plenty of other trophies for Edward Yang have just proved how talented he is. Just as in Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia (1999) in Yi yi the situations build around family rituals; weddings, funerals, births and divorces. But at once I must say that one cannot even compare Yi yi with Magnolia, many have but I think they're competing on very different calibers. Yi yi is much more insightful, impressionistic and intimate compared to its western companion.An honest man, who is the shareholder of an IT company hears that his mother in law has sunk into a coma the same day his brother in law is getting married. This shakes his family, which includes his wife, his 8-year-old son and a teenage daughter. The doctor recommends them to keep company for her and different kind of confessions and explanations bond the stories of the characters together.Yi yi is a family saga, a chronicle and a study of the agony caused by performance pressures. Most of the story is set near a high block of flats and the halls of it, which is full of rich residents. Edward Yang's film is a fascination of impressionistic imagery; the reflections on the windows, the precisely considered pictures to the silhouette of high buildings and the traffic jams. His 'mise-en-scene' is amazingly well handled and he comes close to Bressonian geographic perfection where each image has a meaning. As Eric Rohmer has said film is art of state and the state of Yang's film tells us about rootlessness and agony. The visuality of Yi yi is very subtle - Yang uses a lot of inappropriate long shots when he shows us the chores of his characters, outside the room, behind the window filled with distressing reflections of the city and the traffic. So the postmodern architecture works as a way for Yang to tell us something about the lives of the characters.Edward Yang's film is a quality film for its style, but also for its purpose and contents. It's quite a philosophical film filled with ontological riddles: How can we see the whole truth, why am I me and not you. Yi yi is a film about generations and it forces the middle-aged characters to stop for a while and think about their lives; the choices made and the consequences to come. It challenges its viewer to think about the eternal question, the meaning of life and in an unique way.The urban aesthetics of Yi yi is gorgeous and the fascination Edward Yang feels for the high buildings, traffic and reflections is astonishing. At times the way he uses the state of film, resembles me of Jacques Tati's Play Time (1967). Filled with beautiful, gorgeous images Yi yi is a film about life and reality. If imitation is the highest form of flattery, then Yi yi truly is an 'Imitation of Life' and sometimes an imitation can be greater than life itself.One and a two.. what does the easy dilemma of one plus two equal. It certainly sounds easy but perhaps it's not. The meaning of life - the eternal dilemma. Edward Yang doesn't offer any answers for his audience but he does give a lot of thinking to do, while he is studying the dilemma himself. Yi yi is without a doubt a great film for its content, style, philosophy and purpose.

Like watching paint dry. Tries to pull off a "magnolia" but fails to keep the viewer interested. Too long for too little. Waste of 3 hours. Boring piano accompaniments the whole way through. Grandmas in a coma,so Everybodys gotta talk to grandma every day. Gimme a break. This is a movie without any suspense, pure middle class drivel. I can't believe this was given thumbs up. I challenge any critic who enjoyed this to watch it a second time. Talk about being in a coma...there's some stuff coming out of China, but this and other painfully slow-moving scripts (like "2046") don't make the cut. It seemed like there was nothing in this movie that you wouldn't see walking thru a shopping mall. Business man questioning his existence? How cliché is that? The scene with the young couple watching the celloist in performance was so long I wanted to puke. If I want to hear cello music I'll put on yo-yo ma.