In the process of "Yiyi" slowly narrating about family, affection and the meaning of life, there are several things that touch the heartstrings the most. For example, the house owner played by Wu Nianzhen can feel the complicated emotions stirred in his heart when he sits silently on the chair with his son who was bullied by the girl after meeting his first love at the wedding banquet of his brother-in-law. For example, after his wife Minmin found out that she and her mother were telling the same thing one day, she washed her face in tears with extreme sadness and asked herself what she was doing in her life every day. For example, when Wu Nianzhen and his first love met in Tokyo to try to go back to the original time, Wu Nianzhen knocked on the door of his lover, and a simple and unpretentious "I never loved another person again" made the lover cry all night. For example, after Wu Nianzhen's wife Minmin came home from the "mountain", she sat on the bed and said, "It turned out to be the same, but the place was changed." For example, Xiao Yangyang wrote down what he wanted to say to her mother-in-law after her mother-in-law passed away. At her mother-in-law's funeral, she said it to her mother-in-law innocently and sincerely, saying, "I also feel that I am getting old."… There is nothing gorgeous about these details, but because of this, the real emotion from life is as refreshing as the fragrance that keeps wafting from the flowers.
And the simple and solid shots of the film from beginning to end bring us a real Taiwan. What the bland stories and language in the film bring us is the real life in Taiwan. Through this film, we can feel the living conditions of middle-class families. Such a family can just reflect the living conditions of Taiwan. It's not so luxurious, and it's not so cruel and powerless. Everyone just lives for the sake of life, some people live with love, some people love a little less, and some people don't know what to live for. This is the most essential aspect of life, everyone has everyone's life, everyone has everyone's love, everyone has everyone's troubles. The meaning of life probably lies in this life full of love and troubles. Of course we can't feel too much from a movie, about Taiwan, about Taiwanese, about Taiwanese culture, about Taiwanese life. But we can feel the emotion, the kind of family that is always held by love, and the meaning of life that is constantly thinking and verifying. Are we living in the mainland without family affection, without thinking about the meaning of life, and without life troubles? As the movie says: they're all the same, just in different places.
Text / Muyi
View more about Yi Yi: A One and a Two... reviews