Director Watch Podcast Ep. 175: 'A Confucian Confusion' (Edward Yang, 1994)

On episode 175 of the Director Watch Podcast, co-hosts Ryan McQuade and Jay Ledbetter discuss the next film in their Edward Yang series, A Confucian Confusion (1994). Welcome back to Director Watch! On this AwardsWatch podcast, the boys attempt to breakdown, analyze, and ultimately, get inside the mind of some of cinema's greatest auteurs. In doing so, they will look at their filmographies, explore what drives them artistically and what makes their decision making process so fascinating. Add in a few silly tangents and a fun game at the end of the episode and you've got yourself a podcast we truly hope you love. After making one of his grand masterpieces, Yang stripped everything back down and created a contemporary commentary about the generational mobility of the future 20-30 year olds of his country. In exploring the intersecting lives of his characters, Yang humorously dives into how the decision they make now will affect their future, and set them up for either lives of happiness or eternal regret, and in doing this, Yang creates a testament to the time and a look to the future of his country. Ryan and Jay discuss their thoughts on the film, how funny the film is to them, the strongest characters in the film being the female characters and the worst characters being the male ones, and how his familiar structure as a storyteller shines in a modern comedy like this. You can listen to the Director Watch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more. You can also listen on the AW YouTube page. This podcast runs 1h20m. The guys will be back later this week to continue their series on the films of Edward Yang with a review of his film, Mahjong (1996). You can rent it via iTunes and Amazon Prime rental in preparation for the next episode of Director Watch. Till then, let's get into it. Music: MUSICALIFE, from Pond5 (intro) and "B-3" from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).