🎬🌿 Yi Yi - Taiwanese drama film Screening (Cinematheque)

Group movie outing - new restoration / optional post-film chat.

Short summary
Most "family drama" films give you one crisis, one arc, one resolution, and then the credits roll like the family is solved.
Yi Yi does something much harder.
Edward Yang follows a middle-class Taipei family across a full year — a father reconnecting with an old love, a teenage daughter carrying guilt she can't put down, and a young son quietly photographing the backs of people's heads because he thinks we can't see our own lives clearly. A grandmother in a coma. A mother searching for meaning. A wedding at the beginning. A funeral near the end. Everything in between.
It's three hours long and it earns every minute.
This is the kind of film I like programming: patient, warm, devastating, and completely uninterested in flattering the audience or rushing to a point. It just watches people live — and somehow that's enough to break you a little.
Won Best Director at Cannes in 2000. This is a brand new restoration from the original negative for the film's 25th anniversary.

A few questions already sitting in my head

• "Why does a film about ordinary life feel more epic than most films about extraordinary things?"
• "The son keeps photographing the backs of people's heads. What is he actually trying to see — and does the film agree with him?"
• "The father gets a second chance with an old love. Is that hope, regret, or proof that some doors close for a reason?"
• "Does the film think family holds people together or holds people back — or both at the same time?"
• "What does this movie understand about middle age, teenage loneliness, and childhood curiosity that most films don't even try to touch?"
• "By the end, did the family change — or did you just finally see what was already there?"

How the evening will go
We'll meet at The Cinematheque before the screening, head in together, and whoever wants can keep the night going nearby after for a drink or tea and the immediate post-film conversation.
Please buy your own ticket in advance.
New restoration. Three hours. The kind of quiet that stays loud in your head for days.

When and where
🗓️ Date: Sunday, April 19th 🕒 Time: 6:00 PM
📍 Location: The Cinematheque - 1131 Howe St, Vancouver

Tickets
Please buy your own ticket through The Cinematheque before the event day. If you can, arrive 10-15 minutes early.
Link to tickets :
(Buy sunday 19th at 6pm)
https://thecinematheque.ca/films/2026/yi-yi

Runtime: 173 minutes.
In Mandarin, Hokkien, Japanese, and English with English subtitles.
Cap 8 + waitlist Small group on purpose so the post-film conversation stays real.