Yi yi (2000)

Yi yi: Directed by Edward Yang. With Nien-Jen Wu, Issei Ogata, Elaine Jin, Kelly Lee. Each member of a middle-class Taipei family seeks to reconcile past and present relationships within their daily lives.

“This is without a doubt the best film of 2000, a masterpiece of sublety and understatement. It is long–just under three hours–but during that three hours, the entire range of human experience is covered. It is about life–thatu0026#39;s it. But, to make a statement about life, you have to illustrate it with lives, and this Yang does exquisitely. There is a tragic undercurrent running through this film, and while I was watching it I thought of Thoreauu0026#39;s observation that u0026quot;most men lead lives of quiet desperation.u0026quot; Yet, in spite of the travails the filmu0026#39;s characters undergo, it is ultimately a work of affirmation. This is about as good as the art of cinema can get.”