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.J. is driving quietly and puts on wired headphones to increase his sense of distance. Ting-Ting is asleep on the front passenger seat beside him.

Min-Min is in the back seat, Yang-Yang asleep on her lap. We see the headlights and cars of Taipei racing past them … the family is awash in the chaos of the city.

When they arrive home, their housekeeper comes running out, telling them to go straight to the hospital. Grandmother has had an accident.

The kids apparently stayed at home, it’s only Min-Min and N.J. Min-Min gives N.J. instructions, including waiting for A-Di while she goes in to see her mother.

A-Di shows up with some friends and is very drunk — N.J. expresses disgust that he drove to the hospital drunk. One of his friends remarks “so what, cops drive drunk too.”

A-Di starts spouting off another mystical theory about how everything will be alright because it’s the luckiest day of the year. When N.J. expresses some skepticism, A-Di launches into some pointless diatribe about how his brother in law doesn’t trust him, but should because he’s about to repay all the money he was loaned. This conversation is seen in a reflection of the hospital windows and in a deeper part of the reflection, we can see A-Di’s friends goofing off in the hospital hallway.

We then get a shot of Min-Min with her mother in the hospital room, the doctor talking to her — but we don’t hear the discussion. Then we overhear N.J. and Min-Min talking when they get back home, N.J. wondering why grandmother was down at the dumpsters because Ting-Ting had already taken out the garbage.

We see Ting-Ting listening to this and she knows this isn’t true — that she forgot to take out the bag on the balcony. Her guilt over this will be carried throughout the film.

There’s only one other scene in this segment, Min-Min back in the office the next day, having a copy-machine conversation with a colleague about her mother’s condition, voicing her brother’s confidence that everything will be fine.

The coworker isn’t buying this confidence saying “that’s one way to look at it.” We find out that this coworker is deeply religious and Min-Min would like to know what the Buddhist priest might have to say about her mother’s condition. The colleague suggests she ask him herself — but Min-Min replies that she only spent a couple weeks with him and doesn’t feel close enough to get a response from him.

The coworker then suggests that Min-Min lacks humility, leading Min-Min to ask if something is wrong with her.

This little section is doing a lot of heavy lifting. The mother has fallen into a coma and this condition will shape of the action to come. Ting-Ting will feel guilty about this, worrying that she is responsible for what happened.

Min-Min will face a spiritual crisis over her mother’c condition — and N.J. will begin to wonder if he chose the right life partner for himself.