Edward Yang

Taipei as a system, filmed through glass. Yang tracks several families at once and lets the city's modernisation express itself as thwarted ambition and unlived alternatives. His compositions place people behind windows, in doorways, at the far end of offices — architecturally trapped.

Signature

• Ensemble structure; no single protagonist owns the film.
• Reflections and window frames isolating people inside the shot.
• Long takes at conversational distance rather than in close-up.
• Adolescent violence read as a symptom of an adult failure.

Distinguish from

Shares Coming of Age with lighter treatments but the register is arthouse in all seven films — the young are inside a social machine, not on a journey. Compare Wan Jen and Tsai Ming-liang as the other Taiwanese New Wave entries.

Films here also carry Cultural Dislocation, Coming of Age, Moral Ambiguity, Identity Crisis, Surveillance & Control.