Sunday, July 01, 2007

Edward Yang, 1947-2007



Filmmaker Edward Yang, ne Te-Chang Yang, one of the leading forces in the Taiwanese New Wave, died from colon cancer on June 29 in Los Angeles, his adopted city.

He is survived by:
-- "That Day On The Beach" (1983)
-- "Taipei Story" (1984)
-- "The Terrorizer" (1986)
-- "A Brighter Summer Day" (1991)
-- "A Confucian Confusion" (1995)
-- "Mahjong" (1996)
-- and the exquisite "Yi Yi" (2000).

At his death, Yang was in preproduction on a planned animated film, "The Wind." Hopefully, his partner in the project, Jackie Chan, will guide the work to its completion and with Yang's vision for it.

But if his three-hour masterwork, "Yi Yi" turns out to be his last, that's ok. Frankly, I can't think of anything, any film, better.

To paraphrase a line from "Mr. Roberts," thanks for the movies, Mr. Yang, thanks for everything.

(Artwork: Poster art for the French release of Yang's "Yi Yi")

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Anyone interested in perusing some 2060 of my film reviews, dating back to 1994, can do so by simply going to RottenTomatoes.Com

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