🎥
I saw this movie at the Music Box theater in Chicago with a friend years ago when it came out. Although it's almost 3 hours long, I remember feeling engrossed by exploring a Taipei, a city I know very little about, and the simmering family dynamics.
Rewatching it recently after borrowing the for-real DVD from the Brooklyn library (extra recommendation: borrow DVDs from libraries), the realization of my own getting older and family transitions gave me a more introspective feeling. Heavy, but not sad.
Feb 14, 2024
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a perfect slice-of-life about life itself; all-encompassing. it’s not that time repeats itself here, but love does, along with all of our human impulses. we fight with our family, hold onto stubborn luck, fall in and out of love, and suffer one tragedy after another. it’s the purity of trust that keeps us locked in step with each other, sometimes wordless but with boundless affection. perseverance is a given in this world; there’s no doubt about it.
at the end, Yang-Yang delivers his letter to his grandma as his family looks on. they’ve all been grieving for ages before this. NJ, standing behind his wife, goes to sit down—not beside her, but across the aisle next to their daughter. she silently spills a tear. he grips her hand with stoic affection. they all keep looking on, seeing the past, the present, and the future all at once.
Feb 5, 2024
📽
An amazing movie that is a little bit over 3 hours long (something I wish I had known when I went to watch it alone at Metrograph on a Sunday night). The scenes are beautiful and above all of that, a really meaningful movie. It’s an epic story about a young boy in Taiwan set in the early 1960s. I replay the scenes in my mind constantly and it’s become something that I’m constantly reflecting on about how to tell a violent story, beautifully.
Mar 31, 2022
this movie kinda fucked me up, reminded me of being young and feeling hella isolated/like nobody understands you but really it's a ubiquitous human feeling (lol at least for me) that has morphed and shifted but stayed with me into adulthood. anyway japanese ennui, digital camera & y2k vibes, incredible soundtrack and plot, i know the ppl of pi.fyi would love it.
Feb 28, 2024
