Yi yi (2000)

This Taiwanese film graced many top ten movie lists of the past decade and that's how I heard of it. I had to prepare myself for the nearly 3 hours of slow-paced drama and wide angles.

Set during the dotcom boom of the late nineties, a modern, upper middle class family faces individual struggles. The mother faces her mother's recent descent into a coma. The moral father faces his former lover and lack of integrity at work. The bright teenage daughter discovers romance. The young son finds his own voice and battles ridicule.

If a scene can be shot without actually showing the actors directly, it is done. Reflections, barriers, and distant wide shots are used to convey the feeling of voyeurism, the feeling that you encounter situations like this everyday without knowing.

While there are some dramatic events on the periphery, the characters themselves encounter internal struggles and the triumphs at the end are beautifully depicted.

IMDB