Curent Project: Krzysztof Kieslowski

The scene opens in the hallway of the apartment building. The nurse looking after grandmother gets off the elevator and prepares to take out her key. We see Ting-Ting rushing to the door to open it for her — kind, but unnecessary. She has been in Lili’s apartment next door

Ting-Ting’s problems sleeping are now illustrated by a classroom lecture where she has fallen asleep. All of the girls in class have potted plants on their desks and the teacher is taking about how, if you feed and nurture the plants too much, they won’t grow. She spins

This segment is devoted entirely to the grandmother. She is brought home from the hospital and nurses give Min-Min some instructions about keeping her comfortable. A male nurse also suggests talking to her, saying that she can hear them, so it’s helpful to her progress. But right before he

Here is where “Yi Yi” starts to reveal itself as a special film — not through plot or a big dramatic scene, but by laying details on top of one another, bits of commentary and storytelling that can be missed without close attention. When Kieslowski noted the similarities to Edward Yang’

I closed the last section by noting how the family crisis affected members of the family, but did not include Yang-Yang. The crisis actually doesn’t affect Yang-Yang terribly, at least not at first, and this short segment is devoted entirely to him. Yang-Yang is the most philosophical character in

Now that Edward Yang has set up the family — and introduced some minor tension into it — it’s time to throw the Jians into crisis. We begin with another car ride, this one with N.J., Min-Min, Ting-Ting and Yang-Yang. Except they are separate, lost in their own worlds. N.