Earlier in the film, Yang-Yang gives his uncle, A-Di, a picture of the back of his head, telling him, “You can’t see it, so I’m helping you.” Yang-Yang, as the artist, reveals the blind spots of others, and shows them what they heretofore have been unable to see. Edward Yang also engages in a similar task in Yi Yi, and showing his audience the Jian family coming together is a revelation of just how far apart they have grown, and how great the need is for artists to show us what we are too blind to see about our own lives. It is only through Yang’s masterful framing in Yi Yi that his spectators are provided with the necessary space, the ability to see the harsh beauty of time’s passage, in all its speed and relentlessness. Yang’s ability to show us the world afresh by virtue of his masterful framing and mise en scène cements his position as one of the world’s greatest filmmakers.
Posted 1 year ago
