i will come back and write a more coherent review later but for now -- I WILL PROTECT YANG YANG WITH MY LIFE!! MY SUN AND STARS, MY WHOLE WORLD, MY ONE AND ONLY SON!!!

edit:
honestly, a masterclass in its portrayal of the human condition.

this film feels like it was made for me, and i'm embarrassed that it's taken me this long to watch it. upon finishing, i wanted to go back and rewatch it almost immediately. one of those films i'm sure i'll return to again and again, and see new details each time. i see the same care and delicacy in this as i do in the works of other humanistic directors like koreeda and ozu, and it just reminds me how many more wonderful films i have yet to see.

other bullet point thoughts:
- the opening shot of the wedding photoshoot takes place on the campus of my mother's alma mater. i remember visiting the campus myself when i was younger.
- in the final scene with Yang Yang, he's reading his speech from a little pale green chinese character writing booklet; i had the same exact booklet when i was a little kid learning how to write chinese for the first time.
- the fact that the film was bookended by these two very personal/relatable things. ♥️
- what a joy it is to hear Taiwanese and Mandarin spoken together, sometimes switching within the same lines of dialogue. i've always had trouble explaining this phenomenon to friends, but it's something i've grown up hearing all my life. also notable is NJ and Sherry speaking mostly in Taiwanese with each other, which is a linguistic mark of the older generation, vs. the younger characters who speak only in Mandarin.
- i read an interview somewhere that Lulu Wang drew some inspiration from this film for THE FAREWELL, and yeah, i totally see it.
- Ting-Ting is a student at the most prestigious girls' high school in Taiwan -- the green uniform is very iconic.
- loved the many still shots of reflections and windows and narrow framing of characters between doors/walls (voyeuristic POV vs. sense of characters feeling trapped in their lives?)
- the absolute PANG of emotion i got from watching NJ and Sherry getting lost in the train station and the shot of the JR Chuo line train passing by. i have a suspicion that the hotel they meet in is the Keio Plaza Hotel, but i'm not sure. i miss Japan every day.
- more than any other film i've watched, Yi Yi really captures the sense of each individual human living their own complex, vivid lives, with a unique set of memories, emotions, experiences, and relationships to a thousand other strangers who you'll never know.