EDWARD YANG SEASON

The East Asia Film Festival Ireland is delighted to present a season of rare screenings by auteur filmmaker, Edward Yang (1947–2007), four masterworks from one of the most iconic figures, alongside Hou Hsiao-Hsien, of the Taiwanese New Wave film movement of the early 1980s.

Born in Shanghai, Yang moved with his family to Taiwan in 1949 after the end of the Chinese Civil War. His films are notable for their sprawling, unconventional narrative structures, their precise compositions, and a largely non-professional cast portraying urban living situations and experiences of modernity. Revered as “the thinker of urban culture”, Yang’s fast-moving yet melancholic ensemble pieces are grounded in a realist aesthetic – revealing intricacies of interpersonal relationships (between different generations and classes). His own formal training as a computer engineer may account for his interest in urban modernity, capturing on screen Taiwan’s rapid modernisation in the booming capital, Taipei.

Yang also directed one TV series, and has written and directed four theatrical productions, several music videos and flash animations, as well as being an artist of comic strips. In 2000, Yang won Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival for Yi Yi (A One and a Two…) his final and most renowned film.

Each of our four special screenings will be introduced by film producer from Taiwan, Chuti Chang.

We would like to thank the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute, the Taipei Representative Office in Ireland, and Chuti Chang for their invaluable support with this programme. And a very special thanks to Janus Films and NG Yuk Lin.

Edward Yang Season’s film notes taken from the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute, the Film Lincoln Centre and Janus Films.