Research on the Theme of Yi Yi
Abstract: Yi Yi is the last film by Taiwanese director Edward Yang. This article attempts to analyze the theme that Edward Yang wants to embody in the film Yi Yi from the dialogues between characters and a few film shots.
Keywords: life; ideal; time; past events; regret; love
1. About ideals
Unlike movies like Dead Poets Society that pursue ideals and are unwilling to be ordinary, One by One actually tells a story about simplicity and ordinariness. In Dead Poets Society, Mr. Keating quoted Whitman's poem: "Most of us actually live in quiet despair." And all the people in One by One belong to this " most people . " When NJ's wife Minmin found that "it was like this in the morning, like this at noon, and like this in the afternoon," when she realized that her life was far from being as wonderful, romantic, and ups and downs as she had imagined, when she tried to find the meaning of life in the lights and neon lights on the streets in front of the glass windows of the buildings in modern society, but found nothing, she immediately fell into endless grief, and the only hope she could think of was to go up the mountain and throw herself into the arms of religion to find the meaning of life. But even as proud and detached as religion, it still had to send people to look for checks - these secular things, so that when Minmin returned to NJ, her husband asked her what was different on the mountain, and she replied: "Actually, it's all the same."
When NJ and his colleagues finished their business meeting with Daejeon, NJ stared at Daejeon playing with the white doves alone. Edward Yang gave this scene a long shot of several seconds. At this moment, the collision of black and white reached its peak. Daejeon, wearing a black suit, was first a businessman, and the white doves were a symbol of ideals and purity in the dim world. Daejeon was alone, completely ignoring the things around him and immersed in his own world. The scene changed, and NJ 's colleagues hurriedly left the meeting room and were loudly discussing the next business plan (whether to cooperate with Daejeon or with the company that copied Daejeon). Only NJ was still staring at Daejeon. He saw the same ideals in Daejeon, and at that moment, they became friends.
2. About the Past
When NJ and his first love girlfriend were walking in front of a Japanese shrine, recalling their youth, Edward Yang said through NJ: "Everyone is happy that I was admitted to the Department of Electrical Engineering, but I am the most unhappy" (Edward Yang himself also studied electrical engineering). NJ told her that he did not want to compromise with the secular world easily, and she was the one who most wanted NJ to compromise, and the friendship between the two broke down. Decades ago, it was NJ who left without saying goodbye, and now it is her who left without saying goodbye. Maybe life is like this, full of compromises and sudden farewells, as well as past events taken away by time, and youth that cannot be turned back and once lost, it will no longer have. The place where NJ and his first love girlfriend walked in the movie was filmed at the Guigu Shrine in Japan, where not only life is buried, but also love, many past events and vague memories are buried.
3. About the “Other Half”
Yangyang said: "People can only see half of things, the other half is invisible." Everyone cannot see the other half, just as Minmin cannot see those "different things" every day; NJ's first love girlfriend thinks that they broke up because of lack of wealth and then lack of courage. When she asked NJ "Do you dare to start over with her? Do you not love me at all?", she could not see that the reason for their breakup was not the lack of worldly things, but the view of worldly values; and Tingting, who was in love, only saw the romance and beauty of love and chose to be humble, thinking that as long as the two of them spent one night in the hotel, they would have a long-lasting love. After a long-lasting love, she could not see that Fatty was actually the same kind of person as her, both of whom were willing to sacrifice for love at any time, and that led to the sentence they said when they broke up: " You are still what? You are still very optimistic, right? Stop talking nonsense to me! How could you understand? Are you dreaming over there!? If it was really like what you thought, why would you need those romantic love stories to deceive yourself! Go away! Go away! Don't care about me! Don't care about me forever! Don't come to me ever !" The "those romantic stories" in Fatty's mouth may be what he once said: "Every cloud is different, every tree is different". And the next second, he killed his teacher on the spot for Lily.
4. On Life and Regret
Life is also the theme of this film. As the Cannes judges said, "Yi Yi is a poem about life." In fact, the style of the film also fits the essence of life: the film itself is plain, full of sudden quarrels, unexpected farewells, unexpected reunions, short-lived happiness, and endless confusion. The so-called important things in life are weddings, funerals, love, breakups, reunions, the dead, and the dying ... The only unchanging theme of life is regret: when many of us recall our lives, we always regret what would have happened if we had chosen another path. Unlike the male protagonist in "The Butterfly Effect" who repeatedly returns to the past and changes the trajectory of his life, NJ said when he returned to his wife: "If I do it again, it's actually the same." Considering that "Yi Yi" is a work of Edward Yang in his later years, perhaps this is his reflection on life: Don't regret the past, but cherish the existing time and see the invisible "other half"