HOLLYWOOD, Nov. 27, 2000 — It’s safe to say that not a lot of people know who Taiwanese filmmaker Edward Yang is.
But all that could change — to a certain extent, at least — with his new film “Yi Yi” (“A One and A Two“), which earned the 53-year-old filmmaker the best director nod at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
A sprawling, splintering portrait, the story follows a middle-age businessman, his old flame, a comatose mother-in-law, a discontent wife contemplating the meaning of existence, a daughter getting a first taste of love, and a young boy who’s wiser than the adults around him (and those are just half the characters) while they ride out the path and digression of everyday life.
Yang’s own journey into filmmaking can itself be described as a detour of sorts. He studied electrical engineering in Taiwan, pursued a higher degree in computer sciences in the United States, enrolled in — and promptly dropped out of — USC film school in one semester’s time, and worked as a computer designer in Seattle for seven years — all before returning to his native country in the early ’80s to pursue a career in filmmaking. And Yang, along with other young visionaries such as director Hou Hsiao-hsien, aimed to bring new life to the ailing film industry and united during this period in what came to be known as the Taiwanese New Wave.
In spite of having six full-length films under his belt, “Yi Yi” is the director’s first film to get a U.S. distribution. Hollywood.com chats with director Edward Yang, who is in Taiwan with his wife celebrating the birth of their first-born son.
You just won the best director at Cannes with “Yi Yi,” and because of that, you’ve been getting a lot of international attention. But the fact of the matter is that your works have long been regarded highly in the foreign, art-house circuit. Is it frustrating for you that, on one hand, your works are very much praised by a handful of critics, but on another, you’re still very much an unknown in much of America?
Edward Yang: Well, not really. I just take it a step at a time, take it naturally. I don’t really get bothered by how much exposure I get. It comes natural.
It’s been 4 years since your last film “Mahjong.” What were some of the reasons behind the time off?
Yang: Actually, there wasn’t any time off. The thing is, this business has changed a lot in the last 10 years, especially in Asia. [That was the amount of] time we needed to spend on regrouping and regrouping the resources. [In Asia], you don’t work like filmmakers in the States or in Europe, you basically have to run your own business. It’s not [a case where] you just write and direct or train actors. Basically, I spent perhaps more than half my time talking business.
You had actually started thinking about the idea for “Yi Yi” some 15 years ago when a friend’s father went into a coma. But you had thought that you were too young to deal with that subject matter at that time. What has prepared you to finally tell this story?
Yang: This film is really about the spectrum of life from birth to death. At the time, 15 years ago, I knew I was too young to treat, especially the second half [of the film], properly. So I just let it sit and left it on the shelf.
A couple years ago, when the producers asked me for ideas, I proposed this one. They all loved the story and I started to write it and I knew I was ready [then] because I finished the first draft very quickly, [in about] a week’s time. And it’s been pretty smooth from then on.
The whole process of making the film is very much like writing a letter to a close friend. I decided from the very beginning that it should be very direct, shouldn’t have too much filmic skills or whatever styles or whatever. Basically, it should be a very straightforward and intimate thing. That’s how I relate it to my viewers.
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What was your personal inspiration for making this film?
Yang: I have a lot of those stories kicking around. I constantly have things in my head, and that’s why when people ask me ‘what do you plan to do next’, there are a number of things [I can do], [and] there are a number of things that are ready to go. I work this way instead of one at a time.
[With this film,] I didn’t have to write a big volume of work just to tell someone’s life from birth to death. It’s a good idea to focus just on one family [where] every age is represented by one member, and each member is intimately related to one another, it’s almost like one person’s life. And instead of writing a big book like “War and Peace,” you basically have this small family film that talks about a lot more than just the family.
There’s just so many fun things happening around you. Earlier, when I wasn’t a filmmaker, [when] I was regularly employed, I noticed that a lot of people take for granted a lot of things that (were happening around them. I think our work [as filmmakers and artists] is to remind them that there are so many fun things happening, and those are the things you put in your stories.
You have a preference for using non-professional actors in your works, like the boy and the girl that play the brother and sister in “Yi Yi.” Any reasons why?
Yang: As I said, because of the depletion of local resources in every market. I think, especially in Taiwan, you find that you have less and less people to work with, including actors. So constantly, you have to kind of bring up you own crop, not of just actors, but also of people you work with.
[Also,] there simply aren’t any professional actors that age actually. Now Jonathan [Chang, the boy who plays the young boy Yang Yang] is now an experienced actor after this film. The thing I told them to do was to just do it for real. Don’t pretend. I think the best thing was that they really trusted me. I think that’s the first thing you have to build between you and the actors. Once you have that, it’s a lot easier.
In the film, you used veteran screenwriter Wu Nienjen as the main character. Through that casting choice, you are saying that writers, because of their trade and their experience in dealing with characterizations, sometimes can make the best type of actors. Has that been true in Wu Nienjen’s case when you’re directing him?
Yang: I’ve known him [Wu] for so long. My first feature we worked together on the script, we were locked away somewhere for a while just to concentrate on that script. I got to know him very, very well. From the beginning, I knew that he’s a great actor and is a talented, natural born actor. Nobody else knew.
When the producers said, ‘This is a great project, let’s go ahead,’ I said, ‘Wait a minute, I have only one guy and I really want him to play the central role of NJ. Just give me a couple of days.’ So I called him and had coffee with him — he’s a very, very busy person in town, he is a celebrity, he’s on TV all the time and he’s doing all kinds of things. So I said, ‘Do you have time to do this if you’re interested?’ He said he’s really interested and he’ll set aside a time to do it. Then I told the producers, ‘OK, let’s go ahead, I don’t have any problem with the main cast.’
What has he brought to the role?
Yang: Understanding. He is such a good writer himself and he knows what I am trying to get at right away. With a lot of actors, you have to talk to them, to try to relate things to them. Because he and I are very close, he knows what I was trying to do. Right away, with some of the scenes, he just said, ‘OK, gimme a cigarette break.’ And he just went outside and smoked a cigarette and came back and did the scene in just one take. He’s that good.
What are some of the reasons behind starting off the film with a Chinese wedding and with the grandmother’s coma?
Yang: In Chinese culture, weddings always symbolize something lucky, something good, something you want to be a part of. And the ending [of the film] is the funeral. And funerals are always the dark side, the thing you want to avoid, the thing you don’t want to talk about and so forth. But basically, life, I think, is when good things have its dark side and bad things have its brighter side. So those are, I think, how I define dramatics. Drama is really about good guy does bad things and bad guy does good things.
“Yi Yi” opens Dec. 1 in Los Angeles.
