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Edward Yang

Edward Yang

Directing

Biography

Edward Yang (Chinese: 楊德昌; pinyin: Yáng Déchāng; November 6, 1947 – June 29, 2007) was a Taiwanese filmmaker. Yang, along with fellow auteurs Hou Hsiao-hsien and Tsai Ming-liang, was one of the leading film-makers of the Taiwanese New Wave and Taiwanese Cinema. Yang's singular visual style has been defined by deliberate pacing, long takes, fixed camera, few closeups, empty spaces, and cityscapes. His films prominently feature themes of struggle between tradition and modernity, and between business and art, set against the backdrop of an evolving Taiwanese society.

Known For

A Brighter Summer Day
8.3

A boy experiences first love, friendships and injustices growing up in 1960s Taiwan.

A Brighter Summer Day

1991
Yi Yi
7.9

A Taipei family faces personal and moral uncertainty as everyday events test their relationships and sense of purpose.

Yi Yi

2000
Taipei Story
7.4

A young woman urgently seeks to navigate the maze of contemporary Taipei and find a future. She hopes that her boyfriend Lung is the key to the future, but Lung is stuck in a past that combines baseball and traditional loyalty that leads him to squander his nest egg bailing her father out of financial trouble.

Taipei Story

1985
Terrorizers
7.4

An uncompromising look into urban life from the eyes of a voyeuristic photographer, a rebellious teenager, and a married couple teetering on the edge of adultery.

Terrorizers

1986
A Summer at Grandpa's
7.5

A coming-of-age story about a young brother and sister whom spend a pivotal summer in the country with their grandparents.

A Summer at Grandpa's

1984
Mahjong
7.4

Amid a rapidly changing cityscape, the lives of a disparate group of swindlers, hustlers, gangsters, and expats collide, with a naive French teenager and a sensitive young local who tries to protect her caught dangerously in the middle.

Mahjong

1996
A Confucian Confusion
7.5

Over the course of a few days, the paths of a group of young friends, lovers, and acquaintances in Taipei intersect, prompting them to arrive at realizations about their lives.

A Confucian Confusion

1994
In Our Time
7.2

Four vignettes, each set in different decades from the 1950s through the 1980s, deal with protagonists at different stages of life between childhood and young adulthood.

In Our Time

1982
Yang ± Yin: Gender in Chinese Cinema
5.2

An exploration of Chinese cinema and its relationships with gender and sexuality, which the film argues has been more frankly and provocatively explored than in any other national cinema. Utilizing both film excerpts and interviews with many leading directors and academics, the film examines topics such as male bonding in kung fu movies, depictions of same-sex bonding and physical intimacy, the emphasis on women's grievances in melodramas, and the career of Yam Kim-Fai, a Hong Kong actress who spent her life portraying men on and off the screen.

Yang ± Yin: Gender in Chinese Cinema

1998
That Day, on the Beach
7.5

Two friends who haven't seen each other for thirteen years reunite. One is a successful concert pianist just back from a European tour and the other has just started a new business.

That Day, on the Beach

1983
First Love Unlimited
6.8

Only the lack of roses in every frame prevent this teen romance from being a live action Shojo Manga.

First Love Unlimited

1997
Jam
7.5

The lives of two young thieves, a mob hitman and a film producer are entangled when the two thieves steal a car that had already been previously stolen to been used as a getaway car.

Jam

1998
When Cinema Reflects the Times: Hou Hsiao-Hsien and Edward Yang
6.7

From the 1980s to the 1990s, New Taiwanese Cinema gained international attention for adopting a completely different approach to that of the commercial films which had preceded it. This piece contrasts Hou Hsiao-hsien and Edward Yang, two rivals who were the driving force behind New Taiwanese Cinema. The closing of a cinema invites us to reflect on society and the passage of history.

When Cinema Reflects the Times: Hou Hsiao-Hsien and Edward Yang

1993
Adult Game
N/A

Direct-to-video music film co-directed by three major figures of the Taiwanese New Cinema featuring song by Edward Yang’s then wife Tsai Chin.

Adult Game

1986
No image
N/A

A TV movie and part of groundbreaking Taiwan TV series “Eleven Women”.

Happy Single Lady

1981
No image
N/A

A 1997 Mitsubishi commercial directed by Edward Yang, featuring music composed by his widow Kaili Peng.

New Middle Class RV - Fatty Doctor Edition

1997
The Winter of 1905
N/A

Tsui Hark stars as Chinese artist and Buddhist monk Li Shutong, a.k.a. Master Hong Yi. Li travels to Japan to study Western artistic practices, and revolutionizes the teaching of art in China upon his return. Set during the turbulent era of the Russo-Japanese War circa 1905.

The Winter of 1905

1982
Duckweed
7.0

A young woman leaves her home and boyfriend in rural Taiwan for Taipei with dreams of entering the entertainment industry and gradually discovers the complicated ramifications of her pursuit. A 2-part TV movie and part of the groundbreaking series "Eleven Women," this is Edward Yang's directorial debut.

Duckweed

1981
Likely Consequence
6.9

Filmed performance of Yang's one-act two-character play which shifts back and forth from comedy to much darker tones as a married couple try to figure out what to do with the body of a man the wife has killed in their kitchen.

Likely Consequence

1992
The Wind
8.0

Of the many unrealized projects Yang developed in the wake of Yi Yi, the one that came the closest to fruition was an ambitious animated martial arts movie inspired by his lifelong love of graphic novels and his friendship with Jackie Chan. Though production on The Wind was halted after Yang’s death, this brief assembly of completed scenes offers a glimpse of what might have been. Courtesy of the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute. – Film at Lincoln Center

The Wind

2007