Blu Tuesday is a weekly column where we review the newest Blu-ray and 4K releases, along with a brief rundown of the included bonus material, to determine whether they’re worth buying, renting or skipping.
Pick of the Week: “Yi Yi”
It’s been 25 years since the release of director Edward Yang’s final film, the slice-of-life family drama “Yi Yi,” and although a lot about the world has changed in that time, the movie remains as compelling as ever due to its universal themes of life, death, love and regret. An intimate portrait of a middle-class family in Taiwan set over the course of one pivotal year, “Yi Yi” may spread its storytelling across numerous characters, but it’s family patriarch N.J. (Nianzhen Wu) and his precocious son, Yang-Yang (Jonathan Chang), whose stories are the most interesting of the bunch. “Yi Yi” is about both everything and nothing at all, capturing the profound depth in the seemingly ordinary moments of our lives that shape who we are, and it’s what makes the film such a poignant and timeless piece of cinema that will be just as relevant in another 25 years.
Extras include an audio commentary by Yang and Asian cinema critic Tony Rayns, an interview with Rayns about the New Taiwan Cinema movement and an essay by critic Kent Jones. FINAL VERDICT: BUY
Disclosure: Bullz-Eye was provided a copy of the above titles for review purposes.
