Directed by Yu-Chieh Cheng
Starring Chien-wei Huang, Sandrine Pinna (Yung-yung Chang), Bryant Chang
112 minutes
Opens at the Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival, November 14, Innis Town Hall @ 7:30pm
**1/2 stars out of 5
The poignant Taiwanese film, Yang Yang tells the story of sibling rivalry between two stepsisters, Yang Yang (Sandrine Pinna) and Xiao-Ru, and the emotional toll it delivers and leaves behind in the competitive sport of running, the pain of adolescent love and the heartbreaking longing for parental acceptance.
Trouble boils over on the track field and off when Xiao-Ru’s boyfriend Shawn (Bryant Chang) falls desperately in love with Yang Yang. Shawn’s testosterone levels run out of control and the thought of losing Yang Yang drives him to embark on a quest to find her biological father.
Why See It?
Through the stunning realism of a home video, the ever-present hand-held camera brings us up close and personal and captures the awkwardness of growing up as we become voyeurs in a tender yet viciously jealous teen love triangle where every moment is an emotional struggle between life and death.
If you have forgotten your own growing up years of day-to-day uncertainty, irrational behaviour, unrequited love, feeling like an outsider within your own family and the never ending question of and search for your own ancestral roots then this film will refresh your memory and take you on the journey of recalling your own loss of innocence and perhaps even feeling grateful for the life lessons learned.