A One And A Two (2000) DVD

Starring	Elaine Jin, Nien-Jen Wu, Issey Ogata, Kelly Lee
Director	Edward Yang
Genres	Drama, World Cinema

A One And A Two

Focusing on a typical family--parents, two children, and an elderly grandmother--living in a small apartment in Taipei, YI YI (A ONE AND A TWO) is about the patterns of daily life. It includes a wedding, a funeral, a first date, a last date, a birth, and a death. The film follows each member of the Jian family carefully, giving each one equal time, completely developing each character. NJ (Wu Nienjen), the father of the family, struggles with a dead-end job at a technology firm while reexamining his marriage when he meets his high school sweetheart, Sherry (Ke Suyun), after 30 years. NJ's teenage daughter, Ting-Ting (Kelly Lee), has a selfless demeanor and a naive interest in everything, which diffuses the complexity of her high school life. Her little brother, Yang-Yang (Jonathan Chang), is an adorable five-year-old troublemaker who's in love with a pesky girl in his class. And Yang-Yang's mother, Min-Min (Elaine Jin), grieves for her dying mother (Tang Runyun) while coping with her own middle age in a rapidly maturing family.
Edward Yang, director of 1991's A BRIGHTER SUMMER DAY, presents a careful, direct, meticulously photographed film with YI YI. Brassy shots of Taipei reflected in the windows of a moving car are offset with slow choreographed sequences using the streetlights to narrate little moral tales. Perhaps the most powerful gem in this film is the magical character of Mr. Ota (Issey Ogata), NJ's Japanese business associate, whose optimistic life perspective will inspire and delight YI YI's viewers.

Starring	Elaine Jin, Nien-Jen Wu, Issey Ogata, Kelly Lee, Jonathan Chang, Hsi-Sheng Chen, Shu-shen Hsiao, Shu-Yuan Hsu, Adrian Lin, Ke Suyun, Ru-Yun Tang, Michael Tao, Hsin-Yi Tseng, Pang Chang Yu
Director	Edward Yang
Studio	ICA PROJECTS LTD.
Run time	DVD: 2 hrs 53 mins
Certificate
Genres	Drama, World Cinema
Language	DVD: Mandarin
Subtitles	DVD: English
Released	DVD: not available Production year: 2000

Critics' reviews (6) of A One And A Two
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Notable for their complex structure, arresting visuals, measured pace and spare dialogue, Edward Yang's films have always provided a humanist insight into the modern urban experience. But rarely has he exhibited such poetry and precision as in this engrossing domestic epic. With his nerve-frazzled wife dabbling in religion and his kids experiencing growing pains, a bourgeois partner in a computer firm (Wu Nianzhen) hits a midlife crisis that not only proves the unpredictability of life, but also slyly mirrors Taiwan's current sociopolitical insecurity. The performances are superb and the narrative deceptively simple in its workaday naturalism. But this is much more than soap gone art house.
- Radio Times
- Posted 29 Jan 2006
A cool dissection of three generations of a family, at different but similar points in their trajectories, this wry, detailed narrative, circling at a distance around its protagonists, provides many pleasures, as well as insights into the human condition
- Halliwell's Film Guide
- Posted 02 Mar 2006
Most helpful member's review of A One And A Two
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29 out of 29 people found this review helpful

Find out what the back of your head looks like!

I found it probably the best film of 2002. A sprawling family saga, it's one of those "all human life is there" films which like "Les Enfants... more

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- - Nimrod from London
  - Posted 17 Jun 2004 15:02
Most recent members' review of A One And A Two
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6 out of 7 people found this review helpful

Subtle and clever

A very sweet and gentle story that carries with it some big human issues without hitting you over the head. Clever

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- - A customer from Scotland
  - Posted 08 Mar 2004 22:30