This film compares poorly with "Yi Yi". While it has some visually lovely scenes (especially those around what I think is Haiphong Bay), the film is badly hurt by the lack of meaningful dialog in the film. It is also hurt by a lack of resolution to the action in the film (such as it is).
A good drama not only contains interesting characters who you care about, it resolves the issues that come up in the film in a meaningful way. This film is a bad drama. The characters are largely uninteresting, their problems are not very interesting, and not much resolution is offered in the film to the problems.
For me the sub-plot of the husband of the oldest sister and his second wife who lives on a raft, that was interesting. And the dialog between him and the old man who ferries him out to the island was actually thoughtful. Sadly, that comprises less than 15 minutes of the films running time. For the rest we have these seemingly endless scenes in which the twins (brother and sister) wake up, exorcise, say a few words to each other, and then go across the street for some breakfast. These "wake up" scenes don't lead much of anywhere. Very little is said, nothing happens.
If you are going to do a movie about sexual attraction between a brother and sister then make that movie. Instead all of these scenes are a waste of our time, the brother has no interest at all in his sister and she is actually involved with a man who we see just twice in the film (I think he has two lines of dialog, period). What was the director trying to say in these scenes between the twins? I have no idea.
As far as I can tell, the director really has nothing to say. He shows some traces of visual flair but as a writer, he is a failure. Perhaps he should try adapting someone else's work?
I'm going to praise "Yi Yi" here. That film created problems in the lives of the characters and then resolved them. Things happened, there was forward progress. People grew and developed during the year which the film covers. By contrast in this film, there is no growth, no progress, problems are brought up and not resolved. In drama, problems are resolved with dialog, people talk, they come to an understanding, the world is changed. In this film, people don't talk, or when they do we (the audience) doesn't hear it, or only one person says anything and we have no good idea how the other person thinks about what was said. This film is a perfect example of bad drama.
A good drama not only contains interesting characters who you care about, it resolves the issues that come up in the film in a meaningful way. This film is a bad drama. The characters are largely uninteresting, their problems are not very interesting, and not much resolution is offered in the film to the problems.
For me the sub-plot of the husband of the oldest sister and his second wife who lives on a raft, that was interesting. And the dialog between him and the old man who ferries him out to the island was actually thoughtful. Sadly, that comprises less than 15 minutes of the films running time. For the rest we have these seemingly endless scenes in which the twins (brother and sister) wake up, exorcise, say a few words to each other, and then go across the street for some breakfast. These "wake up" scenes don't lead much of anywhere. Very little is said, nothing happens.
If you are going to do a movie about sexual attraction between a brother and sister then make that movie. Instead all of these scenes are a waste of our time, the brother has no interest at all in his sister and she is actually involved with a man who we see just twice in the film (I think he has two lines of dialog, period). What was the director trying to say in these scenes between the twins? I have no idea.
As far as I can tell, the director really has nothing to say. He shows some traces of visual flair but as a writer, he is a failure. Perhaps he should try adapting someone else's work?
I'm going to praise "Yi Yi" here. That film created problems in the lives of the characters and then resolved them. Things happened, there was forward progress. People grew and developed during the year which the film covers. By contrast in this film, there is no growth, no progress, problems are brought up and not resolved. In drama, problems are resolved with dialog, people talk, they come to an understanding, the world is changed. In this film, people don't talk, or when they do we (the audience) doesn't hear it, or only one person says anything and we have no good idea how the other person thinks about what was said. This film is a perfect example of bad drama.