Edward Yang R.I.P.

Edward Yang, award winning Taiwanese director, died today from complications from colon cancer. Best known for his film Yi Yi (A One and a Two...) 2000, which won best director at the Cannes Film Festival, Yang was a member of the so-called Taiwanese New New Wave film movement along with colleagues Ang Lee and Hou Hsiao-hsien. Yang was born in Shanghai, but moved to Taiwan during the civil war and later moved to the US to study and become a citizen. His film career however was firmly embedded in Taiwan, with many of his films unavailable in the US: In Our Time (1982), That Day on the Beach (1983), Taipei Story (1985), The Terrorist (1986), A Brighter Summer Day (1991), A Confucian Confusion (1994), and Mahjong (1996). He is credited for giving Chang Chen (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Three Times) his start in A Brighter Summer Day. He was planning on working with Jackie Chan on an animated feature entitled The Wind. For me, the news in quite shocking. As a director that I feel the world had yet to discover, Mr. Yang will be sorely missed.