After a time, a Japanese company asked Yang, the Hong Kong director Stanley Kuan and the Japanese director Shunji Iwai to each direct a movie set against the background of modern Asia. It was this request that led Yang to make A One and a Two, a film which he had been thinking about for more than 10 years.
爾後，日本的「波麗佳音」集團邀他、香港導演關錦鵬和日本導演岩井俊二，分別拍攝三部以亞洲現況為背景的電影，楊德昌才把放在心中十多年的《一一》具體化。