![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Review: Yi Yi (一一) (2000)
This was a terrific movie. The entire thing felt so normal and unedited, and it was because of that that the emotions and the atmosphere were communicated so well.
I would definitely recommend this movie. It is pretty long, almost three hours, but I think that the movie wouldn't have been the same if it wasn't. The movie was supposed to be drawn out, almost like a slice-of-life story.
Spoilers.
Story
If I were to summarize the story, I would say that it is just about a family. Each of the members of the family have their own struggles, and we see how they differ from the young to the old. There is a larger emphasis on the father, Jian Nanjun, and the elder daughter, Jian Tingting.
Jian Nanjun had several story lines going on for him. On behalf of his company, he was networking with a Japanese businessman called Mr. Ota, and they hit it off quite well, despite only sharing English between them. In addition, Nanjun was reconnecting with his ex-girlfriend, his first love, despite being married.
Tingting was dealing with feelings of guilt, after her grandmother had suffered a stroke because she was taking out garbage that Tingting had forgotten to take out. As well, she was adjacently involved in a messy web of love involving her next door neighbour.
Yangyang, the younger son of the Jian family, was dealing with constant bullying and teasing. I don't think that his story was necessarily satisfactorily solved, but he himself as a person moved on from the ordeals, which can also be considered realistic.
Nanjun's brother-in-law, the maternal uncle of the children, A-di, was constantly losing money, and there was tension between his current wife and his ex-girlfriend of many years.
Because of all of the stories were so different, I wasn't really sure what the major overarching theme of the movie was, but one thing that all of the characters shared in common was that no matter what happened, they had to move on.
The movie began with the Grandmother suffering a stroke, and at the end of the movie, she died. In the final scene, we see the Jian family together again, as they pay respects to Grandmother.
Production
This movie was beautifully shot. That was what stood out the most to me. Every frame looked so beautiful. This movie really made me want to go back to Taiwan again, even though Taiwan of now is not the same as Taiwan of this time period.
As mentioned, this movie was shot in a rather matter-of-fact matter. There was not a lot of noticeable background music, and not a lot of "dramatic" directing. When conversations were shot, they were often shot from a distance, so that we saw them unfold organically. This was especially the case for scenes where there were lots of people, and scenes when people were fighting. It gave us a more raw view of how something was unfolding and I really appreciated it.
Of course, this effect would not have been possible of the actors were not good, and I thought they were all great. They weren't dramatically expressive, but the point is that people aren't like that in real life. The characters would get upset, but it was like, a soft angst.
Part of the movie was filmed in Taiwanese, which I thought was pretty neat. I had to rely on subtitles for those parts, but it really added to this distinctly Taiwanese-feeling atmosphere.
Characters
Jian Nanjun
He was the character with the most screen time, and he had the most developed story lines. Funnily enough, he didn't have much of a story with his family, and I don't think the movie was worse for it. In general, Nanjun had a good relationship with his kids. Even though I think his wife left for her Buddhist retreat without him, I don't really think he resented her for it.
He just took it as it came. And I guess that's how Nanjun is for the most part. In general, Nanjun is an easygoing guy, but in the way where he does things at his own pace. In fact, his two major story lines in this story are to do with things that he did that were not considered agreeable by others.
The first story line was to do with his company, which was not doing well, and was losing business. In a last ditch effort to secure a business partner, Nanjun invited Mr. Ota to dinner, and they hit it off rather well. Where their friendship really went to the next level was when they realized they shared a love of music, and Nanjun took Mr. Ota to a bar where he could play piano and sing.
Later on, Nanjun went to Japan to see Mr. Ota in order to secure the deal. Basically, Mr. Ota's deal was life was full of risks, and I think why that resonated with Nanjun was that his life has been a balance between taking risks and doing the safe thing. For example, he had loved music, but his girlfriend and his parents didn't think that music was a viable career option. We see that he didn't end up going into music, but he did leave his then-girlfriend, which was a risk.
Unfortunately, his company rejected Mr. Ota and had already signed a deal with another business partner. Nanjun's co-worker, Dada told him that that other business partner was a pretty lady with a good body, which grabbed their boss' attention. Later on in the movie, we found out that the deal had fallen through because the business partner had plagiarized, but now that lady was in a relationship with their boss. At that point, Nanjun had left the company, but it went on to show that there was no point in Nanjun staying a company whose values he didn't agree with.
At the beginning of the movie, Nanjun reconnected with his ex-girlfriend A-rui, who was a little upset with him for abandoning her. He did reach out to her, and eventually they met up in Japan, where they seemed to be having a good time. A-rui was still dealing with feelings of abandonment, and wasn't feeling secure in her happiness. On the other hand, Nanjun was very secure in the fact that he'd never loved anyone like he'd loved A-rui, but that he would still return home to his family, which is very intriguing.
So the way I see it, Nanjun was very careful with his decisions, and once he made them, he was not one to regret his actions, and I respect him for that.
Minmin
After Minmin's mother suffered, a stroke, she had sort of a crisis of faith, and she went on a Buddhist retreat. Thus, she ended up not being a major character in the story, only returning at the very end when her mother passed.
That being said, Minmin did seem more at peace at the end of the movie. We don't know what happened with her while up on the mountain. However, we see that her family was always very supportive of her. Even when the people from the temple went to visit Nanjun to tell him how Minmin was doing, he was very welcoming, and gave them a donation in return.
Perhaps Minmin realized that she had a family that cared for her, and after realizing that, she had the strength to return and move forward.
Jian Tingting
Tingting was the eldest daughter, a very caring and very proper girl.
At the beginning of the movie, Tingting was feeling very guilty. She'd forgotten a bag of garbage on the balcony, and Grandmother had disposed of it for her, but had suffered a stroke while getting rid of it. Tingting couldn't fall asleep because of her guilt, and yet she was keeping all of that guilt inside. Definitely eldest daughter syndrome.
Tingting's other story line was related to the girl who lived next door, Jiang Lili. She and Lili had become easy friends, due to them being of similar age. Lili had a boyfriend Pangzi. They'd gotten into a fight, and Tingting had been passing letters between them as a favour. However, she soon got tired of being the messenger. Pangzi started showing interest in Tingting and they went on a few dates. When Lili asked her what the deal was between them, Tingting chickened out and said they were just friends. However, she later saw that Pangzi and Lili were going out again. Tingting tried to brush things off. The next time she bumped into Pangzi, she said they could still be friends, but Pangzi told her off.
Later on, it was revealed that Pangzi had killed Lili's English teacher, who was simultaneously having a relationship with her and her mother. It was all very messy, and luckily, Tingting was just at the edge of it. At one point in the movie, Tingting walked past the literal crime scene, which kind of represented her position, right? All she can do from such a horrific and messy event is to move on from it.
Tingting seemed to have had a hallucination that her Grandmother ahd woken up (a sign of forgiveness to Tingting). However, it was later revealed that her Grandmother had actually passed away. I'm still trying to interpret that situation, and how Tingting would've seen that. But perhaps the hallucination was a sign from Grandmother just to Tingting to tell her that she had forgiven her, but that she still had to go.
Jian Yangyang
Yangyang was the younger son of the Jian family. For the first part of the movie, we saw that he was often bullied. At the wedding party, and at school, girls would gang up on him for no reason.
What's more is that at school, there was a teacher who would listen to every word of one of the female students (a total teacher's pet) and purposely pick on Yangyang, teasing him and making fun of him in front of others. It was a very demoralizing scene, seeing him being chewed up by a literal adult.
Yangyang and some other boys did a prank on that teacher where they dropped a water balloon on him, and that seemed to have uplifted his confidence.
Then his story moved on to his interest in that one teacher's pet. Part of it is a crush, for sure. He followed her to school to watch her swim. Later on, he tried to learn to swim as well, though I'm not sure if it was to get close to the girl, or as a challenge to himself. In any case, he overcame it.
Yangyang's thing during the movie was that he felt that he could see things that others couldn't. The more literal example he used was that people couldn't see behind them. His father had encouraged him to take photos as a way to take his mind off of the bullying, and he used those photos to further this idea, that he would take photos to show people things they couldn't see.
At the end of the movie, Yangyang told his Grandmother at her funeral that she probably knew a lot of things that he didn't, and that he'd spend the rest of his life telling other people about things that they didn't know.
My interpretation of these words was that the strength of a family was that they can help each other, precisely because they know things that the others don't know. During this movie, all of the characters would try to solve their own problems individually, but at the end of the day, they would find the most comfort in their own families.
A-di
A-di was Minmin's younger brother, who had gotten married at the beginning of the movie. He had two major problems. One was that he had borrowed a lot of money and was always unable to pay it. In particular, he owed money to Nanjun and was always promising to pay it, but I think Nanjun had already assumed that he'd never get the money back, and I don't think Nanjun is bitter about it at all. I think he'd expected this.
A-di's other problem was related to his marital affairs. He was married to Xiaoyan, but his ex-wife Yunyun was very involved in his life. On one hand, Yunyun was rude, but on the other hand, she helped A-di in ways that Xiaoyan couldn't.
Things erupted when Yunyun came unannounced to Xiaoyan and A-di's baby's one-month celebration. A fight broke out, and Xiaoyan was very upset with A-di. Later on, A-di fainted from a gas leak, and they reconciled after that.
Xiaoyan
Xiaoyan was A-di's wife. Though they had just gotten married and had a baby on the way, their relationship was rocky. One night, A-di said that she'd kicked him out of the house because he had another failed business venture. As well, she didn't like that A-di was still having Yunyun in his life.
But as mentioned, after the gas leak, they were back to normal, so I can only guess that they mutually decided to start over for the baby.
Yunyun
At the beginning of the movie, Yunyun made a very rude entrance to the wedding reception of A-di and Xiaoyan. Someone asked her who she was looking for and she very rudely told them to mind their own business. Then, Yunyun found Grandmother and started making a dramatic apology, saying that she should've been the one to call her mother (i.e. mother-in-law). She was escorted away and Grandmother went home because she was shaken.
Later on, A-di and Yunyun met up, and apparently Yunyun was helping A-di with his investments and business ventures. I didn't pay too much attention to that, but I think it was something to do with property and such. As well, wen A-di was kicked out of his house, Yunyun allowed him to stay over, even acting super nonchalant when he was watching porn on TV. So at this point, I had wondered if we'd just gotten off on the wrong foot with her.
But then Yunyun invited herself to the one-month celebration for A-di and Xiaoyan's baby, tricking her mutual friends with A-di to let her come with them. As well, Yunyun acted all buddy-buddy, saying that she had always noticed what a nice girl Xiaoyan was, and that she was the one to point that out to A-di (when they were still together), which is such a weird comment to make. A fight broke out because Xiaoyan had had it and wanted her gone.
Yunyun never made an appearance after that, and I'm guessing that A-di effectively cut her out of his life after reconciling with Xiaoyan.
Jiang Mama
Jiang Mama was the new neighbour next door. We didn't know much about her, except that she was probably a single mom, having several boyfriends over, which Lili did not like.
At one point, Lili was very upset that her mother was sleeping with her English teacher. It seemed a bit over the top at the time, but we see why that's important by the end of the movie.
Lili
While Lili seemed like kind of a selfish girl to me, she's also had a hard upbringing.
While Lili was going out with Pangzi, we also saw that she was having a relationship or at least a fling with a soldier. So she was a two-timer, but perhaps she'd learned that from her mother who had a lot of men over.
When Lili asked Tingting about her relationship with Pangzi, that's when I started thinking that she was maybe a little territorial. Technically it was iffy for Tingting to be with Pangzi because he was her friend's ex, but at the same time, Lili had already broken up with him.
What became iffier was when Lili was back to being on good terms with Pangzi. Her mood was like a switch.
It was only at the end of the movie that we realized that she was also in a relationship with her English teacher, which incited Pangzi's jealousy, and caused him to kill the teacher.
It was all very messy, but it really was the parents who were at fault here. Jiang Mama had a responsibility to take care of her daughter, to protect her from creepy men taking advantage of her, and to also be a good example to her. While Jiang Mama sleeping around wasn't necessarily a bad thing, she gave Lili the wrong idea because she didn't explain to her what the difference was between having casual sexual relationships and actual cheating. In addition, the English teacher was definitely at fault for having relationships with a high school girl.
Mr. Ota
Mr. Ota was a potential business partner that Nanjun struck up a friendship with. As I mentioned, his deal was that he encouraged a healthy view of risk. Risk is inevitable. Everything comes with a risk. But as long as you know what the consequences are, why not go for it? Mr. Ota told Nanjun that he was not going to save his company, but he knew what he could bring, and that it could be successful or it could flop, and that he was willing to take on those probabilities.
I also think that Nanjun perhaps looked up to Mr. Ota. He was able to maintain his love of music while also building a stable life for himself as a business person, whereas Nanjun never had a knack for playing instruments himself.
Nanjun and Mr. Ota's relationship was very sweet in my opinion. I recently spoke to a person who said something along the lines of "love is stored in the broken English" and they are totally right. Love IS stored in the broken English.
A-rui
A-rui was Nanjun's first love. We thought that she had gotten over how things had ended between them, when they'd bumped into each other at the wedding reception. However, soon after, she returned and very pleadingly asked Nanjun why he'd abandoned her.
It took a while before Nanjun reached out to her, and A-rui surprised him when he went to Japan. They spent their days happily, walking hand-in-hand, joking.
At one point, A-rui expressed that she as uspet when Nanjun had abandoned her, and Nanjun explained that he'd had to do things for himself, but overall, I felt that A-rui was the one with more emotions she wasn't ready to overcome yet. One night, A-rui ran to Nanjun's room telling her how afraid she was of being abandoned again. She said she had everything, but implied that she wasn't comfortable in her life (I don't remember the details of the conversation). Nanjun comforted her, saying nothing.
One night, Nanjun finally admitted to her that he'd never loved another woman like he loved her, which she accepted, but she later checked out without telling him.
I think what A-rui and Nanjun needed were two different things. A-rui expected more from Nanjun as a sign of his love, whereas for Nanjun, the feelings of love were enough. It wasn't that they didn't love each other, it was that their expectations of love didn't match, and I think A-rui realized that this trip, and that was why she had to leave.
Pangzi
Pangzi was a young man who was originally dating Lili. They'd gotten into a fight for whatever reason, and later on, Tingting because the intermediary between them. Tingting got tired of doing so, and Pangzi later expressed interest in her.
Their dates were okay. They had some interesting chats. They had one date where they went to see a cello performance. Pangzi was very into it, whereas Tingting was less enthusiastic. Part of it might have been to imply that Pangzi was still super into Lili (who was a cellist), and Tingting had also just been approached by Lili questioning her about her relationship, which put her on edge.
Later that night, Pangzi told Tingting that he only had her in his heart. Then they later checked into a hotel, but Tingting was very nervous and scared. Pangzi ran away, and Tingting walked home alone.
I think Tingting basically understood that they were over because she didn't want to sleep with her, whereas we know that Lili was more promiscuous.
I'm not exactly sure why Pangzi was so angry at Tingting when Tingting wanted to tell him that they could still be friends. He berated her for believing in her positive love stories. Perhaps he had found out about Lili's relationship with other men, and he was taking his anger out on Tingting.
Anyway, Pangzi ended up killing the English teacher who was in a relationship with both Lili and her mother, and had been caught.
Themes
Moving on
As I mentioned, I think what many of the characters in this movie shared in common was that they faced their own share of issues, and they all managed to move past them. How they did so varied.
But I think what comforted all of them was that they had a loving home they could return to. Even if Pangzi was saying mean things to Tingting, she could return home to a loving family. Perhaps Nanjun didn't want to go with A-rui because he valued his stable family so much.
I'm not necessarily saying that "family conquers all," but what's for sure is that it can be a source of strength when the characters are feeling alone.
Love
Tingting, Nanjun, and A-di were all dealing with conflicts of love, and all of the people embroiled in the conflicts had different expectations of it.
For Tingting, she placed good vibes over everything else. Even if love didn't work out, she appreciated friendship too. I think she's a sweet girl who wanted to have a healthy view of love, and I think she's right. She doesn't want love to get in the way of people living healthy lives, which is exactly what happened to the Jiang family next door, who let love destroy their lives.
For Nanjun, the emotions of love were enough. He told A-rui that he had only ever loved her, but we see that he never really expected more from her. The memory of her was enough. Does that mean he never loved his wife? I don't know if that's true. I think he did care for her, but A-rui was his first love. Plus, his wife is his wife, his partner in raising a family, and he has different expectations, whereas his love is just his love. Does that make sense? If he'd married A-rui, I think he'd have more expectations for her, but he didn't, so he doesn't expect anything more from her.
For A-di, he was married to Xiaoyan, but he had some emotional needs that were being supported by his ex-wife Yunyun. Xiaoyan was not supportive of A-di when his business ventures failed, so he would seek comfort from Yunyun. I think that after A-di reconciled with Xiaoyan, she probably started being more supportive of him, because he needed that support in order to succeed in life.
Overall
This was a really good movie, with interesting characters and beautiful cinematography. It is about so many things altogether, nothing specific, and yet it felt so touching. It might be a viewed movie of the year for me.
I would definitely recommend this movie. It is pretty long, almost three hours, but I think that the movie wouldn't have been the same if it wasn't. The movie was supposed to be drawn out, almost like a slice-of-life story.
Spoilers.
Story
If I were to summarize the story, I would say that it is just about a family. Each of the members of the family have their own struggles, and we see how they differ from the young to the old. There is a larger emphasis on the father, Jian Nanjun, and the elder daughter, Jian Tingting.
Jian Nanjun had several story lines going on for him. On behalf of his company, he was networking with a Japanese businessman called Mr. Ota, and they hit it off quite well, despite only sharing English between them. In addition, Nanjun was reconnecting with his ex-girlfriend, his first love, despite being married.
Tingting was dealing with feelings of guilt, after her grandmother had suffered a stroke because she was taking out garbage that Tingting had forgotten to take out. As well, she was adjacently involved in a messy web of love involving her next door neighbour.
Yangyang, the younger son of the Jian family, was dealing with constant bullying and teasing. I don't think that his story was necessarily satisfactorily solved, but he himself as a person moved on from the ordeals, which can also be considered realistic.
Nanjun's brother-in-law, the maternal uncle of the children, A-di, was constantly losing money, and there was tension between his current wife and his ex-girlfriend of many years.
Because of all of the stories were so different, I wasn't really sure what the major overarching theme of the movie was, but one thing that all of the characters shared in common was that no matter what happened, they had to move on.
The movie began with the Grandmother suffering a stroke, and at the end of the movie, she died. In the final scene, we see the Jian family together again, as they pay respects to Grandmother.
Production
This movie was beautifully shot. That was what stood out the most to me. Every frame looked so beautiful. This movie really made me want to go back to Taiwan again, even though Taiwan of now is not the same as Taiwan of this time period.
As mentioned, this movie was shot in a rather matter-of-fact matter. There was not a lot of noticeable background music, and not a lot of "dramatic" directing. When conversations were shot, they were often shot from a distance, so that we saw them unfold organically. This was especially the case for scenes where there were lots of people, and scenes when people were fighting. It gave us a more raw view of how something was unfolding and I really appreciated it.
Of course, this effect would not have been possible of the actors were not good, and I thought they were all great. They weren't dramatically expressive, but the point is that people aren't like that in real life. The characters would get upset, but it was like, a soft angst.
Part of the movie was filmed in Taiwanese, which I thought was pretty neat. I had to rely on subtitles for those parts, but it really added to this distinctly Taiwanese-feeling atmosphere.
Characters
Jian Nanjun
He was the character with the most screen time, and he had the most developed story lines. Funnily enough, he didn't have much of a story with his family, and I don't think the movie was worse for it. In general, Nanjun had a good relationship with his kids. Even though I think his wife left for her Buddhist retreat without him, I don't really think he resented her for it.
He just took it as it came. And I guess that's how Nanjun is for the most part. In general, Nanjun is an easygoing guy, but in the way where he does things at his own pace. In fact, his two major story lines in this story are to do with things that he did that were not considered agreeable by others.
The first story line was to do with his company, which was not doing well, and was losing business. In a last ditch effort to secure a business partner, Nanjun invited Mr. Ota to dinner, and they hit it off rather well. Where their friendship really went to the next level was when they realized they shared a love of music, and Nanjun took Mr. Ota to a bar where he could play piano and sing.
Later on, Nanjun went to Japan to see Mr. Ota in order to secure the deal. Basically, Mr. Ota's deal was life was full of risks, and I think why that resonated with Nanjun was that his life has been a balance between taking risks and doing the safe thing. For example, he had loved music, but his girlfriend and his parents didn't think that music was a viable career option. We see that he didn't end up going into music, but he did leave his then-girlfriend, which was a risk.
Unfortunately, his company rejected Mr. Ota and had already signed a deal with another business partner. Nanjun's co-worker, Dada told him that that other business partner was a pretty lady with a good body, which grabbed their boss' attention. Later on in the movie, we found out that the deal had fallen through because the business partner had plagiarized, but now that lady was in a relationship with their boss. At that point, Nanjun had left the company, but it went on to show that there was no point in Nanjun staying a company whose values he didn't agree with.
At the beginning of the movie, Nanjun reconnected with his ex-girlfriend A-rui, who was a little upset with him for abandoning her. He did reach out to her, and eventually they met up in Japan, where they seemed to be having a good time. A-rui was still dealing with feelings of abandonment, and wasn't feeling secure in her happiness. On the other hand, Nanjun was very secure in the fact that he'd never loved anyone like he'd loved A-rui, but that he would still return home to his family, which is very intriguing.
So the way I see it, Nanjun was very careful with his decisions, and once he made them, he was not one to regret his actions, and I respect him for that.
Minmin
After Minmin's mother suffered, a stroke, she had sort of a crisis of faith, and she went on a Buddhist retreat. Thus, she ended up not being a major character in the story, only returning at the very end when her mother passed.
That being said, Minmin did seem more at peace at the end of the movie. We don't know what happened with her while up on the mountain. However, we see that her family was always very supportive of her. Even when the people from the temple went to visit Nanjun to tell him how Minmin was doing, he was very welcoming, and gave them a donation in return.
Perhaps Minmin realized that she had a family that cared for her, and after realizing that, she had the strength to return and move forward.
Jian Tingting
Tingting was the eldest daughter, a very caring and very proper girl.
At the beginning of the movie, Tingting was feeling very guilty. She'd forgotten a bag of garbage on the balcony, and Grandmother had disposed of it for her, but had suffered a stroke while getting rid of it. Tingting couldn't fall asleep because of her guilt, and yet she was keeping all of that guilt inside. Definitely eldest daughter syndrome.
Tingting's other story line was related to the girl who lived next door, Jiang Lili. She and Lili had become easy friends, due to them being of similar age. Lili had a boyfriend Pangzi. They'd gotten into a fight, and Tingting had been passing letters between them as a favour. However, she soon got tired of being the messenger. Pangzi started showing interest in Tingting and they went on a few dates. When Lili asked her what the deal was between them, Tingting chickened out and said they were just friends. However, she later saw that Pangzi and Lili were going out again. Tingting tried to brush things off. The next time she bumped into Pangzi, she said they could still be friends, but Pangzi told her off.
Later on, it was revealed that Pangzi had killed Lili's English teacher, who was simultaneously having a relationship with her and her mother. It was all very messy, and luckily, Tingting was just at the edge of it. At one point in the movie, Tingting walked past the literal crime scene, which kind of represented her position, right? All she can do from such a horrific and messy event is to move on from it.
Tingting seemed to have had a hallucination that her Grandmother ahd woken up (a sign of forgiveness to Tingting). However, it was later revealed that her Grandmother had actually passed away. I'm still trying to interpret that situation, and how Tingting would've seen that. But perhaps the hallucination was a sign from Grandmother just to Tingting to tell her that she had forgiven her, but that she still had to go.
Jian Yangyang
Yangyang was the younger son of the Jian family. For the first part of the movie, we saw that he was often bullied. At the wedding party, and at school, girls would gang up on him for no reason.
What's more is that at school, there was a teacher who would listen to every word of one of the female students (a total teacher's pet) and purposely pick on Yangyang, teasing him and making fun of him in front of others. It was a very demoralizing scene, seeing him being chewed up by a literal adult.
Yangyang and some other boys did a prank on that teacher where they dropped a water balloon on him, and that seemed to have uplifted his confidence.
Then his story moved on to his interest in that one teacher's pet. Part of it is a crush, for sure. He followed her to school to watch her swim. Later on, he tried to learn to swim as well, though I'm not sure if it was to get close to the girl, or as a challenge to himself. In any case, he overcame it.
Yangyang's thing during the movie was that he felt that he could see things that others couldn't. The more literal example he used was that people couldn't see behind them. His father had encouraged him to take photos as a way to take his mind off of the bullying, and he used those photos to further this idea, that he would take photos to show people things they couldn't see.
At the end of the movie, Yangyang told his Grandmother at her funeral that she probably knew a lot of things that he didn't, and that he'd spend the rest of his life telling other people about things that they didn't know.
My interpretation of these words was that the strength of a family was that they can help each other, precisely because they know things that the others don't know. During this movie, all of the characters would try to solve their own problems individually, but at the end of the day, they would find the most comfort in their own families.
A-di
A-di was Minmin's younger brother, who had gotten married at the beginning of the movie. He had two major problems. One was that he had borrowed a lot of money and was always unable to pay it. In particular, he owed money to Nanjun and was always promising to pay it, but I think Nanjun had already assumed that he'd never get the money back, and I don't think Nanjun is bitter about it at all. I think he'd expected this.
A-di's other problem was related to his marital affairs. He was married to Xiaoyan, but his ex-wife Yunyun was very involved in his life. On one hand, Yunyun was rude, but on the other hand, she helped A-di in ways that Xiaoyan couldn't.
Things erupted when Yunyun came unannounced to Xiaoyan and A-di's baby's one-month celebration. A fight broke out, and Xiaoyan was very upset with A-di. Later on, A-di fainted from a gas leak, and they reconciled after that.
Xiaoyan
Xiaoyan was A-di's wife. Though they had just gotten married and had a baby on the way, their relationship was rocky. One night, A-di said that she'd kicked him out of the house because he had another failed business venture. As well, she didn't like that A-di was still having Yunyun in his life.
But as mentioned, after the gas leak, they were back to normal, so I can only guess that they mutually decided to start over for the baby.
Yunyun
At the beginning of the movie, Yunyun made a very rude entrance to the wedding reception of A-di and Xiaoyan. Someone asked her who she was looking for and she very rudely told them to mind their own business. Then, Yunyun found Grandmother and started making a dramatic apology, saying that she should've been the one to call her mother (i.e. mother-in-law). She was escorted away and Grandmother went home because she was shaken.
Later on, A-di and Yunyun met up, and apparently Yunyun was helping A-di with his investments and business ventures. I didn't pay too much attention to that, but I think it was something to do with property and such. As well, wen A-di was kicked out of his house, Yunyun allowed him to stay over, even acting super nonchalant when he was watching porn on TV. So at this point, I had wondered if we'd just gotten off on the wrong foot with her.
But then Yunyun invited herself to the one-month celebration for A-di and Xiaoyan's baby, tricking her mutual friends with A-di to let her come with them. As well, Yunyun acted all buddy-buddy, saying that she had always noticed what a nice girl Xiaoyan was, and that she was the one to point that out to A-di (when they were still together), which is such a weird comment to make. A fight broke out because Xiaoyan had had it and wanted her gone.
Yunyun never made an appearance after that, and I'm guessing that A-di effectively cut her out of his life after reconciling with Xiaoyan.
Jiang Mama
Jiang Mama was the new neighbour next door. We didn't know much about her, except that she was probably a single mom, having several boyfriends over, which Lili did not like.
At one point, Lili was very upset that her mother was sleeping with her English teacher. It seemed a bit over the top at the time, but we see why that's important by the end of the movie.
Lili
While Lili seemed like kind of a selfish girl to me, she's also had a hard upbringing.
While Lili was going out with Pangzi, we also saw that she was having a relationship or at least a fling with a soldier. So she was a two-timer, but perhaps she'd learned that from her mother who had a lot of men over.
When Lili asked Tingting about her relationship with Pangzi, that's when I started thinking that she was maybe a little territorial. Technically it was iffy for Tingting to be with Pangzi because he was her friend's ex, but at the same time, Lili had already broken up with him.
What became iffier was when Lili was back to being on good terms with Pangzi. Her mood was like a switch.
It was only at the end of the movie that we realized that she was also in a relationship with her English teacher, which incited Pangzi's jealousy, and caused him to kill the teacher.
It was all very messy, but it really was the parents who were at fault here. Jiang Mama had a responsibility to take care of her daughter, to protect her from creepy men taking advantage of her, and to also be a good example to her. While Jiang Mama sleeping around wasn't necessarily a bad thing, she gave Lili the wrong idea because she didn't explain to her what the difference was between having casual sexual relationships and actual cheating. In addition, the English teacher was definitely at fault for having relationships with a high school girl.
Mr. Ota
Mr. Ota was a potential business partner that Nanjun struck up a friendship with. As I mentioned, his deal was that he encouraged a healthy view of risk. Risk is inevitable. Everything comes with a risk. But as long as you know what the consequences are, why not go for it? Mr. Ota told Nanjun that he was not going to save his company, but he knew what he could bring, and that it could be successful or it could flop, and that he was willing to take on those probabilities.
I also think that Nanjun perhaps looked up to Mr. Ota. He was able to maintain his love of music while also building a stable life for himself as a business person, whereas Nanjun never had a knack for playing instruments himself.
Nanjun and Mr. Ota's relationship was very sweet in my opinion. I recently spoke to a person who said something along the lines of "love is stored in the broken English" and they are totally right. Love IS stored in the broken English.
A-rui
A-rui was Nanjun's first love. We thought that she had gotten over how things had ended between them, when they'd bumped into each other at the wedding reception. However, soon after, she returned and very pleadingly asked Nanjun why he'd abandoned her.
It took a while before Nanjun reached out to her, and A-rui surprised him when he went to Japan. They spent their days happily, walking hand-in-hand, joking.
At one point, A-rui expressed that she as uspet when Nanjun had abandoned her, and Nanjun explained that he'd had to do things for himself, but overall, I felt that A-rui was the one with more emotions she wasn't ready to overcome yet. One night, A-rui ran to Nanjun's room telling her how afraid she was of being abandoned again. She said she had everything, but implied that she wasn't comfortable in her life (I don't remember the details of the conversation). Nanjun comforted her, saying nothing.
One night, Nanjun finally admitted to her that he'd never loved another woman like he loved her, which she accepted, but she later checked out without telling him.
I think what A-rui and Nanjun needed were two different things. A-rui expected more from Nanjun as a sign of his love, whereas for Nanjun, the feelings of love were enough. It wasn't that they didn't love each other, it was that their expectations of love didn't match, and I think A-rui realized that this trip, and that was why she had to leave.
Pangzi
Pangzi was a young man who was originally dating Lili. They'd gotten into a fight for whatever reason, and later on, Tingting because the intermediary between them. Tingting got tired of doing so, and Pangzi later expressed interest in her.
Their dates were okay. They had some interesting chats. They had one date where they went to see a cello performance. Pangzi was very into it, whereas Tingting was less enthusiastic. Part of it might have been to imply that Pangzi was still super into Lili (who was a cellist), and Tingting had also just been approached by Lili questioning her about her relationship, which put her on edge.
Later that night, Pangzi told Tingting that he only had her in his heart. Then they later checked into a hotel, but Tingting was very nervous and scared. Pangzi ran away, and Tingting walked home alone.
I think Tingting basically understood that they were over because she didn't want to sleep with her, whereas we know that Lili was more promiscuous.
I'm not exactly sure why Pangzi was so angry at Tingting when Tingting wanted to tell him that they could still be friends. He berated her for believing in her positive love stories. Perhaps he had found out about Lili's relationship with other men, and he was taking his anger out on Tingting.
Anyway, Pangzi ended up killing the English teacher who was in a relationship with both Lili and her mother, and had been caught.
Themes
Moving on
As I mentioned, I think what many of the characters in this movie shared in common was that they faced their own share of issues, and they all managed to move past them. How they did so varied.
But I think what comforted all of them was that they had a loving home they could return to. Even if Pangzi was saying mean things to Tingting, she could return home to a loving family. Perhaps Nanjun didn't want to go with A-rui because he valued his stable family so much.
I'm not necessarily saying that "family conquers all," but what's for sure is that it can be a source of strength when the characters are feeling alone.
Love
Tingting, Nanjun, and A-di were all dealing with conflicts of love, and all of the people embroiled in the conflicts had different expectations of it.
For Tingting, she placed good vibes over everything else. Even if love didn't work out, she appreciated friendship too. I think she's a sweet girl who wanted to have a healthy view of love, and I think she's right. She doesn't want love to get in the way of people living healthy lives, which is exactly what happened to the Jiang family next door, who let love destroy their lives.
For Nanjun, the emotions of love were enough. He told A-rui that he had only ever loved her, but we see that he never really expected more from her. The memory of her was enough. Does that mean he never loved his wife? I don't know if that's true. I think he did care for her, but A-rui was his first love. Plus, his wife is his wife, his partner in raising a family, and he has different expectations, whereas his love is just his love. Does that make sense? If he'd married A-rui, I think he'd have more expectations for her, but he didn't, so he doesn't expect anything more from her.
For A-di, he was married to Xiaoyan, but he had some emotional needs that were being supported by his ex-wife Yunyun. Xiaoyan was not supportive of A-di when his business ventures failed, so he would seek comfort from Yunyun. I think that after A-di reconciled with Xiaoyan, she probably started being more supportive of him, because he needed that support in order to succeed in life.
Overall
This was a really good movie, with interesting characters and beautiful cinematography. It is about so many things altogether, nothing specific, and yet it felt so touching. It might be a viewed movie of the year for me.