Edward Yang

[wkw]

Filmography

# Yi yi (2000)
... aka Yan Yan - Natsu no omoide (Japan)
... aka Yi yi: A One and a Two... (International: English title)

# Mahjong (1996)
# Duli shidai (1994)
... aka A Confucian Confusion
# Guling jie shaonian sha ren shijian (1991)
... aka A Brighter Summer Day

# Kongbu fenzi (1986)
... aka The Terroriser
... aka The Terrorisor
... aka The Terrorist
... aka The Terrorizer
... aka The Terrorizers
# Qingmei Zhuma (1985)
... aka Taipei Story
# Haitan de yitian (1983)
... aka That Day, on the Beach
# Guangyinde gushi (1982)
... aka In Our Time

[wkw]

RIP Edward Yang

Edward Yang, 59, Director Prominent in New Taiwan Cinema, Is Dead

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By MANOHLA DARGIS
Published: July 2, 2007

Edward Yang, a leading figure in the New Taiwan cinema movement of the 1980s who was best known for “Yi Yi,” about one family’s life together (and apart) in Taipei, died Friday in Beverly Hills, Calif. He was 59.

Mr. Yang’s wife, Kaili Peng, announced his death on Saturday and said the cause was complications of colon cancer.

An American citizen, Mr. Yang was born in Shanghai in 1947, two years before the leaders of China’s Nationalist government were exiled to Taiwan. His family soon followed, and he was raised in Taipei, where he grew up watching films by Federico Fellini and Robert Bresson. Although he dreamed of becoming a filmmaker, he studied electrical engineering at the University of Florida and worked in computer design in Seattle. He experienced an epiphany, however, after seeing Werner Herzog’s “Aguirre, Wrath of God.” (“I went in,” he later explained, “and that turned me around.”) He returned to Taiwan, where he wrote the screenplay for the feature “The Winter of 1905” (1981) and directed a short, “Desires,” for the 1982 anthology feature “In Our Time.”

This film, along with another anthology work, “The Sandwich Man,” announced the arrival of two major world directors: Mr. Yang and his compatriot and former collaborator, Hou Hsiao-hsien. Together, these new wavers pushed Taiwanese cinema into its next era with work that explored the country’s rapidly moving present as well as its history, by way of period pieces and stories set in the here and now. The two also put Taiwanese cinema on the international map, eventually becoming familiar presences at important forums like Cannes, where Mr. Yang won best director in 2000 for “Yi Yi,” and the New York Film Festival.

Pierre Rissient, a former consultant for the Cannes festival, explained that in the early days Mr. Yang and Mr. Hou served as something of a team. Their approach to cinema may not have been new, at least in an international context, Mr. Rissient said. But in Taiwan and much of the rest of Asia, he continued, it “was extremely fresh and extremely intimate and, at the same time, had a distance.” This much-remarked-upon critical distance — evident in Mr. Yang’s beautiful long shots and leisurely takes — allowed characters and viewers the space and time to breathe and think. The influence of European modernists like Michelangelo Antonioni on this work is undeniable, as is its cultural specificity.

Mr. Yang directed seven features that in their visual style and preoccupations — including the impact of modernization on the Taiwanese middle class — argue for his status as an auteur. Among the notable titles were his feature directing debut, “That Day, on the Beach” (1983), a female coming-of-age story set against social and political transformations, and his autobiographically informed “A Brighter Summer Day” (1991), set among teenage gangs during the 1960s. At once deeply personal and epic in scale, with an original running time of four hours and more than 100 speaking parts, “A Brighter Summer Day” proved a crucial leap forward for Mr. Yang and firmly sealed his reputation.

Still, even as his international renown grew, Mr. Yang remained largely unknown in the United States, where interest in foreign-language film was on the wane. It wasn’t until “Yi Yi,” his last completed feature, that American audiences were finally introduced to a filmmaker widely hailed as one of the most important in contemporary cinema. Released here under the jazz-influenced title “A One and a Two,” the film received rapturous reviews. Writing in The New York Times, A. O. Scott called it “lucid, unobtrusive and absorbing” and, like many critics, placed it on his top-10 list of the year. It went on to win numerous honors, including best picture — in any language — from the National Society of Film Critics.

Mr. Yang is survived by his wife; a son, Sean; a sister, Li; and a brother, Robert.

End of Article

[ie]

And he was working on an animated movie with Jackie Chan. Jackie Chan Adventures, but not annoying? I know the project was cut short even before Yang fell ill, but I'd still love to see that completed. Hopefully not Game of Death style, though. Maybe Bruce Lee: A Warrior's Journey with Game of Death style.

I'm surprised there wasn't a flood of requests for Yi Yi at the library. I was thinking of rewatching it even a couple days ago, I don't plan to especially right now, but maybe later this summer.

Overall, unfortunate news. (Heard about this earlier today.)

[misterbalco]

NO!!!! Aw damn it man, RIP

[criterionmaster]

holy shit, i can't believe he died. he wasn't even old, this is so fucking sad. yi yi is one of the best films ever made, and that was his last!! he could have done so much more, in my opinion. i will have to check out some more from him, has anyone seen, or heard anything good, about any of his other films?

[wkw]

I hear that his 4 hour masterpiece A Brighter Summer Day is his best film, though he has made many other excellent films as well.

[criterionmaster]

thanks, i will have to look for that. i know yi yi was really long as well, if i remember, but not that long. i hope it is out on dvd, if it is, it will be going on my queue. i really can't believe anything he made could be better than yi yi, so i really look forward to seeing.