
Directing
Edward Yang
Born — Died
1947-11-06 — 2007-06-29
Place of birth
中国上海, Shanghai, Cina
Known for
Directing
Credits
36 titles
Edward Yang (Chinese: 楊德昌; pinyin: Yáng Déchāng; November 6, 1947 – June 29, 2007) was a Taiwanese filmmaker. Yang, along with fellow auteurs Hou Hsiao-hsien and Tsai Ming-liang, was one of the leading film-makers of the Taiwanese New Wave and Taiwanese Cinema. Yang's singular visual style has been defined by deliberate pacing, long takes, fixed camera, few closeups, empty spaces, and cityscapes. His films prominently feature themes of struggle between tradition and modernity, and between business and art, set against the backdrop of an evolving Taiwanese society.
Known for
8.0Each member of a family in Taipei asks hard questions about life's meaning as they live through everyday quandaries. NJ is morose: his brother owes him money, his mother is in a coma, his wife suffers a spiritual crisis when she finds her life a blank and his business partners make bad decisions.
Yi Yi
2000
8.2A boy experiences first love, friendships and injustices growing up in 1960s Taiwan.
A Brighter Summer Day
1991
7.5A young woman urgently seeks to navigate the maze of contemporary Taipei and find a future. She hopes that her boyfriend Lung is the key to the future, but Lung is stuck in a past that combines baseball and traditional loyalty that leads him to squander his nest egg bailing her father out of financial trouble.
Taipei Story
1985
7.4An uncompromising look into urban life from the eyes of a voyeuristic photographer, a rebellious teenager, and a married couple teetering on the edge of adultery.
Terrorizers
1986
7.5Over the course of a few days, the paths of a group of young friends, lovers, and acquaintances in Taipei intersect, prompting them to arrive at realizations about their lives.
A Confucian Confusion
1994
7.5A coming-of-age story about a young brother and sister whom spend a pivotal summer in the country with their grandparents.
A Summer at Grandpa's
1984
Film credits
1990s · 4 titles
5.5An exploration of Chinese cinema and its relationships with gender and sexuality, which the film argues has been more frankly and provocatively explored than in any other national cinema. Utilizing both film excerpts and interviews with many leading directors and academics, the film examines topics such as male bonding in kung fu movies, depictions of same-sex bonding and physical intimacy, the emphasis on women's grievances in melodramas, and the career of Yam Kim-Fai, a Hong Kong actress who spent her life portraying men on and off the screen.
Yang ± Yin: Gender in Chinese Cinema
1998
6.8Only the lack of roses in every frame prevent this teen romance from being a live action Shojo Manga.
First Love Unlimited
1997
6.7From the 1980s to the 1990s, New Taiwanese Cinema gained international attention for adopting a completely different approach to that of the commercial films which had preceded it. This piece contrasts Hou Hsiao-hsien and Edward Yang, two rivals who were the driving force behind New Taiwanese Cinema. The closing of a cinema invites us to reflect on society and the passage of history.
When Cinema Reflects the Times: Hou Hsiao-Hsien and Edward Yang
1993
7.5The lives of two young thieves, a mob hitman and a film producer are entangled when the two thieves steal a car that had already been previously stolen to been used as a getaway car.
Jam
1998
1980s · 4 titles
7.5A young woman urgently seeks to navigate the maze of contemporary Taipei and find a future. She hopes that her boyfriend Lung is the key to the future, but Lung is stuck in a past that combines baseball and traditional loyalty that leads him to squander his nest egg bailing her father out of financial trouble.
Taipei Story
1985
7.5A coming-of-age story about a young brother and sister whom spend a pivotal summer in the country with their grandparents.
A Summer at Grandpa's
1984
NRTsui Hark stars as Chinese artist and Buddhist monk Li Shutong, a.k.a. Master Hong Yi. Li travels to Japan to study Western artistic practices, and revolutionizes the teaching of art in China upon his return. Set during the turbulent era of the Russo-Japanese War circa 1905.
The Winter of 1905
1982
A TV movie and part of groundbreaking Taiwan TV series “Eleven Women”.
Happy Single Lady
1981
Behind the camera
8.0Each member of a family in Taipei asks hard questions about life's meaning as they live through everyday quandaries. NJ is morose: his brother owes him money, his mother is in a coma, his wife suffers a spiritual crisis when she finds her life a blank and his business partners make bad decisions.
Yi Yi
2000
8.0Each member of a family in Taipei asks hard questions about life's meaning as they live through everyday quandaries. NJ is morose: his brother owes him money, his mother is in a coma, his wife suffers a spiritual crisis when she finds her life a blank and his business partners make bad decisions.
Yi Yi
2000
8.2A boy experiences first love, friendships and injustices growing up in 1960s Taiwan.
A Brighter Summer Day
1991
8.2A boy experiences first love, friendships and injustices growing up in 1960s Taiwan.
A Brighter Summer Day
1991
7.5A young woman urgently seeks to navigate the maze of contemporary Taipei and find a future. She hopes that her boyfriend Lung is the key to the future, but Lung is stuck in a past that combines baseball and traditional loyalty that leads him to squander his nest egg bailing her father out of financial trouble.
Taipei Story
1985
7.5A young woman urgently seeks to navigate the maze of contemporary Taipei and find a future. She hopes that her boyfriend Lung is the key to the future, but Lung is stuck in a past that combines baseball and traditional loyalty that leads him to squander his nest egg bailing her father out of financial trouble.
Taipei Story
1985
7.4An uncompromising look into urban life from the eyes of a voyeuristic photographer, a rebellious teenager, and a married couple teetering on the edge of adultery.
Terrorizers
1986
7.4An uncompromising look into urban life from the eyes of a voyeuristic photographer, a rebellious teenager, and a married couple teetering on the edge of adultery.
Terrorizers
1986
7.5Over the course of a few days, the paths of a group of young friends, lovers, and acquaintances in Taipei intersect, prompting them to arrive at realizations about their lives.
A Confucian Confusion
1994
7.5Over the course of a few days, the paths of a group of young friends, lovers, and acquaintances in Taipei intersect, prompting them to arrive at realizations about their lives.
A Confucian Confusion
1994
7.5Amid a rapidly changing cityscape, the lives of a disparate group of swindlers, hustlers, gangsters, and expats collide, with a naive French teenager and a sensitive young local who tries to protect her caught dangerously in the middle.
Mahjong
1996
7.5Amid a rapidly changing cityscape, the lives of a disparate group of swindlers, hustlers, gangsters, and expats collide, with a naive French teenager and a sensitive young local who tries to protect her caught dangerously in the middle.
Mahjong
1996
7.5Two friends who haven't seen each other for thirteen years reunite. One is a successful concert pianist just back from a European tour and the other has just started a new business.
That Day, on the Beach
1983
7.5Two friends who haven't seen each other for thirteen years reunite. One is a successful concert pianist just back from a European tour and the other has just started a new business.
That Day, on the Beach
1983
7.2Four vignettes, each set in different decades from the 1950s through the 1980s, deal with protagonists at different stages of life between childhood and young adulthood.
In Our Time
1982
7.2Four vignettes, each set in different decades from the 1950s through the 1980s, deal with protagonists at different stages of life between childhood and young adulthood.
In Our Time
1982
7.0A young woman leaves her home and boyfriend in rural Taiwan for Taipei with dreams of entering the entertainment industry and gradually discovers the complicated ramifications of her pursuit. A 2-part TV movie and part of the groundbreaking series "Eleven Women," this is Edward Yang's directorial debut.
Duckweed
1981
7.0A young woman leaves her home and boyfriend in rural Taiwan for Taipei with dreams of entering the entertainment industry and gradually discovers the complicated ramifications of her pursuit. A 2-part TV movie and part of the groundbreaking series "Eleven Women," this is Edward Yang's directorial debut.
Duckweed
1981
NRDirect-to-video music film co-directed by three major figures of the Taiwanese New Cinema featuring song by Edward Yang’s then wife Tsai Chin.
Adult Game
1986
6.9Filmed performance of Yang's one-act two-character play which shifts back and forth from comedy to much darker tones as a married couple try to figure out what to do with the body of a man the wife has killed in their kitchen.
Likely Consequence
1992
6.9Filmed performance of Yang's one-act two-character play which shifts back and forth from comedy to much darker tones as a married couple try to figure out what to do with the body of a man the wife has killed in their kitchen.
Likely Consequence
1992
NRTsui Hark stars as Chinese artist and Buddhist monk Li Shutong, a.k.a. Master Hong Yi. Li travels to Japan to study Western artistic practices, and revolutionizes the teaching of art in China upon his return. Set during the turbulent era of the Russo-Japanese War circa 1905.
The Winter of 1905
1982
NRIt portrays the tumultuous life of a middle-class couple and the reshuffling of relationship dynamics when the woman's young assistant and their landlord become involved, presenting urban life as observed by Yang through a multitude of rapid dialogue.
Growth Period
1993
NRIt portrays the tumultuous life of a middle-class couple and the reshuffling of relationship dynamics when the woman's young assistant and their landlord become involved, presenting urban life as observed by Yang through a multitude of rapid dialogue.
Growth Period
1993
10.0A professional hit-man is hired to take out a target -- however, his girlfriend’s pregnancy gives him second thoughts. He decides that after this job, he will renounce his profession and turn himself in. This is the first feature film from Taiwanese director Alex Yang, who participated in script-writing and production on Edward Yang's early films. "The Trigger" has echoes of Yang's "Mahjong." The actors in the film, except for veteran Ngai Man-Yin, are all new faces -- unfortunately, Ngai's death in 2005 also made "The Trigger" his last appearance on screen.
The Trigger
2002
A 1997 Mitsubishi commercial directed by Edward Yang, featuring music composed by his widow Kaili Peng.
New Middle Class RV - Fatty Doctor Edition
1997
8.0Of the many unrealized projects Yang developed in the wake of Yi Yi, the one that came the closest to fruition was an ambitious animated martial arts movie inspired by his lifelong love of graphic novels and his friendship with Jackie Chan. Though production on The Wind was halted after Yang’s death, this brief assembly of completed scenes offers a glimpse of what might have been. Courtesy of the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute. – Film at Lincoln Center
The Wind
2007
