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Yi Yi (2000)

tomatometer

96

Average Rating: 8.2/10
Reviews Counted: 78
Fresh: 75 | Rotten: 3

In its depiction of one family, Yi Yi accurately and expertly captures the themes and details, as well as the beauty, of everyday life.

95

Average Rating: 8/10
Critic Reviews: 22
Fresh: 21 | Rotten: 1

In its depiction of one family, Yi Yi accurately and expertly captures the themes and details, as well as the beauty, of everyday life.

audience

91

liked it
Average Rating: 4.3/5
User Ratings: 6,590

My Rating

Movie Info

Master Taiwanese director Edward Yang spins this intricate and complex yarn about life's everyday crises. The film focuses on N.J. Jian (Wu Nien-Jen, a noted writer/director in his own right); his wife, Min-Min (Elaine Jin); and their two children, teenager Ting-Ting (Kelly Lee) and young Yang-Yang (Jonathan Chang). Their middle-class existence seems stable and secure until a series of incidents throws all of their lives out of kilter. The misfortunes start at the wedding of Min-Min's

Unrated, 2 hr. 53 min.

Art House & International, Drama

Edward Yang

May 8, 2001

Winstar Cinema

Cast

All Critics (88) | Top Critics (25) | Fresh (80) | Rotten (3) | DVD (18)

Life-affirming in the most genuine, respectful and least mechanical sense.

May 21, 2001 Full Review Source: Toronto Star | Comment
Toronto Star
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The artistry is undeniable -- tough insights blended with graceful compassion, gloomy certainties flecked with rays of hope.

May 14, 2001 Full Review Source: Globe and Mail | Comment
Globe and Mail
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A marvel of delicacy and humor.

May 8, 2001 Comment
Rolling Stone
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This intimate family portrait peels away layer after layer of unspoken truth and hidden life.

April 26, 2001 Full Review Source: Dallas Morning News | Comment
Dallas Morning News
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Keenly observed.

March 22, 2001 Comment
Philadelphia Inquirer
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The filmmaker and his young hero are both obsessed with the minutiae of life, and together they sensitize us to it.

March 12, 2001 Full Review Source: Sacramento Bee | Comment
Sacramento Bee
Top Critic IconTop Critic

...presents a multi-layered look at modern life which is at once simple and profound.

March 24, 2011 Full Review Source: Playback:stl | Comment
Playback:stl

Yi Yi remains a fitting cinematic epitaph to the graceful canon of the brilliant Taiwanese filmmaker Edward Yang, who before his death in 2007, was the film world's preeminent observer of human complexity.

March 23, 2011 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | Comment
Slant Magazine

Blending the Coen Brothers' karmic rubicon with Robert Altman's ensemble heart, "Yi Yi" scratches the identifiable itch to reach out for what we've loved, set free and had come back, perhaps still not meant to be: jobs, lovers, freedoms, opportunities.

December 15, 2010 Full Review Source: Suite101.com | Comment
Suite101.com

One of the best films of the decade, Yi Yi, Edward Yang's most accessible (and very last) film is a fluent, charming and precise family portrait that celebrates ordinary life with all its joys and chaos.

December 29, 2009 Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | Comment

A heartfelt and involving family drama to which even the most subtitle-wary moviegoer could relate.

August 21, 2009 Full Review Source: City Pages, Minneapolis/St. Paul | Comment

Every beat and every image and every cut and every note feels like a part of a whole. It is a total movie.

March 31, 2008 Full Review Source: Antagony & Ecstasy | Comment
Antagony & Ecstasy

A one and a two with Yi Yi if you haven't already.

June 23, 2006 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | Comment
Slant Magazine

The final moments left me thunderstruck, as deeply moved as I've ever been by a film. Yi Yi accumulates moments of truth and insight until it glows with importance.

January 15, 2005 Full Review Source: Looking Closer | Comment
Looking Closer

'With numerous plotlines that move from middle-aged longing and teen romance to cutthroat business, Yang has created a deeply moving examination of a home in turmoil.'

January 22, 2003 Full Review Source: RTE Interactive (Dublin, Ireland) | Comment
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Yi Yi

I was going to state that this is a melodrama of epic proportions but thinking about it its really not a melodrama at all. It is epic though and not just because it's 3 hours long, but because it fits all aspects of life into such a short amount of time so delicately you could be forgiven for not realising how much

May 16, 2011
SirPant

Super Reviewer

Much much duller than I had anticipated but strangely, thoroughly watchable. Everything hits you later, in your bed, hours after you finish the film. Its premise is extremely simple but it's a very portrait of a family, their neighbors, and their loves.

April 30, 2011
jennifxu

Super Reviewer

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Foreign Titles

  • Yi Yi - A One And A Two (DE)
  • A One and a Two... (Yi Yi) (UK)
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