台湾民族电影的终结？杨德昌《一一》及其跨国性

              王琳琳                    (2006-01-14 11:15:20.0)                            

第二届中国影视高层论坛论文

This paper examines the tension between the local and global, and the national and the transnational, in the case of Edward Yang’s film Yi Yi (2000).

First, the paper discusses the content of the film in terms of transnationality and the Taiwanese crisis of national identity. Although on the surface the film is about an average middle-class Taiwanese family facing crisis, I suggest the film can be read as a national allegory. The problems Jian’s company, his family, and he himself are facing represent most of the problems that Taiwan faces today in the global political economy: the rising nationalism, the economic crisis, the encroachment of global media, violence and moral decay, religious and spiritual crisis, and Taiwan’s ambivalent relationship with Mainland China and Japan. Many of these issues are dealt with in the relationship between Jian and his Chinese wife, Jian and his Taiwanese first love, and Jian and his Japanese business partner. The youngest generation representative, Yang-Yang, is the most effected by the globalization process, but he is also the hope for the future.

In terms of distribution, Yi Yi suffers from the globalization of the Hollywood film industry, while it benefits from the transnational film festival circuit. The paradox is that the film was a great success at European and American film festivals and art-house theaters, yet was never released at local Taiwan theaters, especially since the film deals specifically with the contemporary social problems in Taiwan and the crisis of local and national identity. In this case, the process of globalization so much dominates over the local that a film like Yi Yi, which has such a sharp insight into the social problems in Taiwan is rendered silent and invisible to its most important audience, the local Taiwanese people. Yi Yi’s commentary on the crisi...