Considering the misgivings I've had with Yang's other work, I was surprised by how accessible this is. The scenes are still many and short, but they're more connected than in his earlier movies. Sound, especially, often bleeds from one scene to the next, creating a flow that bridges these characters even when they're apart. Moreover, with the focus on a multi-generational family, it's the right style. Taken individually, no single character provides the full reflective impact that culminates through the collective whole, which is indeed greater than the sum of its parts. Although Yang-Yang comes close. I don't believe the film works without him. What a wonderful, curious, slightly unrealistic child, whose newness to the world turns him into a fanciful surrogate for the director himself. It's refreshing to find an art film that dares to verbalize its ideas, even if through a child. Many movies would devolve into sentimentality along these lines, but Yang strikes a perfect balance between distance and sentiment. Long shots, not close-ups, rule the day, which allow the camera to frame the action from the outside looking in, or through a reflective surface, providing the proper space for contemplation. You meet the emotions of a film like this through your own volition.