Film at Lincoln Center is unveiling an Edward Yang retrospective to honor the late filmmaker into the New Year.
Titled “Desire/Expectations: The Films of Edward Yang,” the curated series includes screenings of Yang’s “Yi Yi,” “A Brighter Summer Day,” “Taipei Story,” and the world premiere of a new 4K restoration of “Mahjong.” The Film at Lincoln Center series additionally debuts a new restoration of “A Confucian Confusion.”
IndieWire now reveals that the series, which kicks off December 22, will extend its run through January 9 with new additional screenings, including “Mahjong” in 4K. Also, Yang’s widow, pianist Kaili Peng, who composed the score for “Yi Yi” and is heard playing the piano throughout the film, will introduce the 6:30 p.m. screening of that film on December 22 at 6:30 p.m. That screening will follow a special opening reception at the Furman Gallery at 5:00 p.m.
“Desire/Expectations” is presented with the support of Janus Films. Auteur Yang died in 2007 after capturing Taiwan’s evolution onscreen across decades. Along with Hou Hsiao-hsien, whose retirement IndieWire recently confirmed, he pioneered the Taiwanese New Wave film movement. His postwar ode “Yi Yi” premiered at the New York Film Festival in 2000 and is now regarded as one of the best films of the century. Film at Lincoln Center deemed Yang “one of cinema’s most celebrated and deeply missed surveyors of the human condition.” This curated series was organized by Florence Almozini and Tyler Wilson.
Yang’s theatrical feature debut “That Day, on the Beach” (1983) will screen, as well as “The Winter of 190” (1982), directed by Yu Wei-cheng from Yang’s script. The filmmaker’s unfinished animated martial arts film “The Wind” (2002–2005), production of which was halted after his death, will also screen. Yang’s Antonioni-esque “Terrorizers” will also be presented.
The series comes more than a decade after the last retrospective of Yang’s work in New York, which was also presented by Film at Lincoln Center in 2011.
Check out the trailer for the retrospective below as well as exclusive “Mahjong” 4K stills.
