"Yi," the Chinese word for "one," is the simplest of all characters, graphed by a single horizontal line. Writing "Yi Yi" looks like this - - and translates literally as "one one," though its common usage signifies "individuality." It also suggests a pun: stack "one" on top of "one," and you get, naturally enough, the Chinese word for "two." This neat bundle of multiple meanings provides the title for EDWARD YANG’s masterly study of contemporary Taipei as experienced by three generations of the middle class. In America "YI YI" was subtitled "A One and a Two" (not that anyone ever called it that), a clever indication of the picture’s essential qualities: how it swings with the verve and confidence of a great jazz tune, proceeds with mathematical precision, develops from an accumulation of minute observations and is characterized by calm, clearheadedness and serenity.

Plotted from a wedding to a funeral, featuring dozens of characters and hundreds of incidents, "Yi Yi" commands the largest of stages while favoring the smallest of gestures. Despite its sprawl, it has the intimacy of a chamber piece, and is well suited to home viewing. Until now this has only been possible on a DVD of wretched image quality. A superb new packaging by the Criterion Collection, to be released on Tuesday, clarifies the wondrous things Mr. Yang can do with the reflection in a window or a roomful of bubblegum-pink balloons.

"Yi Yi" is that rare subtitled masterwork bridging (semi-) popular enthusiasm with cinephile fervor, a movie for both the New Yorker set and subscribers to CINEMA SCOPE. Edited by Mark Peranson with contributions by an international roster of writers, this bimonthly Canadian magazine advocates for a passionate, political and purist engagement with the movies. The cover of Issue 27 displays a T-shirt reading "Vote for Pedro," not in reference to the cult of "Napoleon Dynamite," but to the Portuguese cineaste Pedro Costa, whose "Colossal Youth" was much abused at the recent Cannes Film Festival but vigorously championed in the magazine’s pages. This Cannes-heavy edition also goes to bat for Richard Kelly’s reviled "Southland Tales," and spills happy ink on the latest by Richard Linklater among much else. A generous sample is available at cinema-scope.com, but you’ll definitely want to nab a hard copy to read what Rob Nelson has to say about "Marie Antoinette."