SEASON 3, EPISODE 20, YI YI - The Taiwanese Epic of Normal Life

The Rad Revival House ventures back to Asia with a look at the quiet, poignant character study YI YI, directed by Taiwanese film icon Edward Yang.

Returning to the RRH is Special Guest Lecturer Sam Levy, co-host of the YouTube-based podcast “Informed Nostalgia.” Labeled by our host, Professor Cesare Augusto, as the go-to American guy for great Asian cinema, Sam originally recommended YI YI to us as essential viewing, and rightfully so! 

YI YI explores the lives of a seemingly-ordinary family in Taipei: a workaholic father, a melancholic teenaged daughter, and a precocious schoolaged boy. But the film is anything but ordinary. The themes of remorse, regret, lost loves, the beginning of life, and life’s end with death are deeply explored in this picture. YI YI alternately explores the perspectives of the characters, shifting from one’s feelings towards their situations to another, shifting sometimes agonizingly slowly, but with great, delicate care, a cinematic signature of the director, Edward Yang.

Cesare and Sam analyze the film’s quiet approach, how its somewhat sluggish pace may turn off mainstream viewers, but with enough patience from the audience, the film will win over many thanks to its very relatable worldly themes, despite taking place in Taiwan. Plus, our reviewers also embrace the film’s capture of an Asian family and how its more serious and realistic turn could help defeat standard cinematic cultural stereotypes of “Martial Arts” and allow for a greater, reflective look at regular Asians!