Edward Yang , along with Hou Hsiao-Hsien and Tsai Ming Liang, was one of the leading filmmakers of the Taiwanese New Wave and . He won the Best Director Award at for his 2000 film ''Yi Yi'' , and was honored with many other accolades from other prominent international film festivals.
Biography
Edward Yang was born in Shanghai in 1947, but grew up in Taipei, Taiwan. After studying Electrical Engineering in National Chiao Tung University, he enrolled in the graduate program at the University of Florida, where he received his Masters Degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering in 1974. During this time and briefly afterwards, Yang worked at the Center for Informatics Research. Yang always had a great interest in film ever since he was a child, but put away his aspirations in order to pursue a career in the high-tech industry. Also, a brief enrollment at USC Film School after graduating with his M.S.E.E. convinced him that the world of film was not for him - he thought USC film school's teaching methodologies were too commercial-oriented. Yang then applied and was accepted into Harvard's architecture school, the Harvard Graduate School of Design, but decided not to attend. Thereafter, he went to Seattle to work in microcomputers and defense software.
While working in Seattle, Yang came across the Werner Herzog film ''Aguirre, the Wrath of God'' . This encounter rekindled Yang's passion for film and introduced him to a wide range of classics in world and European cinema. Yang was particularly inspired by the films of Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni . He married Taiwanese pop-singer and music legend in May 1985. They divorced in August 1995, and he subsequently married concert pianist Kai-Li Peng.
Films and work
Yang eventually returned to Taiwan to write the script for and serve as a production aide on a Hong Kong TV Movie, ''The Winter of 1905'' . After directing a series of television shows, Yang's break came in 1982 when he
was asked to direct and write a short, "Desires" , in the seminal Taiwanese New Wave collection '''' . The short film is a rather poignant portrayal of a young girl's experiences through puberty.
Yang then followed that short with several of his major works. Although his contemporary Hou Hsiao-Hsien focused more on the countryside, Yang is a poet of the city, analyzing the environment and relationships of urban Taiwan in nearly all his films. His first piece, ''That Day on the Beach'' , was a fractured modernist narrative reflecting on couples and families that spliced time-lines. He followed with ''Taipei Story'' , where he cast fellow auteur Hou Hsiao-Hsien as the lead, a former Little-League baseball star trying to find his way in Taipei, and ''The Terrorizers'' , a complex multi-narrrative urban thriller
that reflected on city life and that contained the crime elements and alientation themes of an Antonioni film, that won a Silver Leopard at The Locarno International Film Festival.
Yang then followed with '''' , a sprawling examination of youth-teen gangs, 1949 Taiwanese societal developments, and American ; the film was considered by many critics to be a masterpiece. For ''A Brighter Summer Day,'' Yang won the FIPRESCI Prize at The Tokyo International Film Festival, and a Golden Horse award for Best Film. Yang then followed with the satires ''A Confucian Confusion'' , which garnered a Golden Horse award for Best Screenplay Originally Written for The Screen, and '''' , which won The Alfred Bauer Award at The Berlin International Film Festival and garnered Yang a "Best Director" Award at The Singapore International Film Festival. However, Yang is most likely known for his film, ''Yi Yi'' - it is for this film he received the at Cannes in 2000, among other notable film awards. ''Yi Yi'' an epic story about the Jian family seen through three different perspectives: the father NJ , the son Yang-Yang , and the daughter, Ting-Ting . The three-hour piece starts with a wedding, concludes with a funeral, and contemplates all areas of human life in-between with profound humour, beauty and tragedy.
Themes
Yang attempts to examine the struggle between the modern and the traditional in his films, as well as the relationship between business and art, and how greed may corrupt, influence, or affect art. For that reason, many of his films are extremely difficult to find, since Yang does not consider selling films for money his primary purpose as an artist.
Also, Yang always sets his works in the cities of Taiwan. As a result, Yang's films - especially ''A Confucion Confusion,'' ''Taipei Story,'' ''Mahjong'' and ''The Terrorizers,'' are commentaries on Taiwanese urban life and insightful explorations of Taiwanese urban society.
He has also collaborated with many of his fellow Taiwanese filmmakers in his films: for instance, in ''Yi Yi'' he cast as the lead well-known auteur, novelist, and screenwriter Nien-Jen Wu, director of the award-winning ''Duo Song'', or ''A Borrowed Life'', which Martin Scorsese has cited as one of his favorite works and one of the most influential films of the 90s. He also cast fellow filmmaker Hou Hsiao-Hsien as the lead in his 1984 film, ''Taipei Story''. Yang has also taught Theatre and Film classes at the Taipei National University of the Arts. Several of his students show up in his films as actors/actresses.
Legacy
In 2000, Yang formed Miluku Technology & Entertainment to produce animated films and TV shows. The first animated feature that Miluku was slated to produce was an animated feature entitled ''The Wind'' with Jackie Chan in 2007 but the project was cut short when he fell ill with cancer. He died on June 29, 2007, at his home in Beverly Hills, as a result of complications from a seven year struggle with colon cancer. He is survived by his wife, concert pianist Kaili Peng, and son Sean.
Filmography
Features
*''In Our Time'' - segment "Desires"/"Expectation"
*''That Day on the Beach''
*''Taipei Story''
*''The Terrorizers''
*''''
*''A Confucian Confusion''
*''''
*''''
*''The Wind''
Further reading
* John Anderson, ''Contemporary Film Directors: Edward Yang'' . See
