Fridae

Writer-director Hou Hsiao-hsien is regarded as one of the most
important pioneers of Taiwanese cinema. His films are renowned for
faithfully observing the minutiae of human behaviour. And his quiet,
contemplative style influenced many younger Taiwanese filmmakers
such as Ang Lee and Tsai Ming-liang.

His latest gem Three Times is composed of three parts,
each starring Shu Qi and Chang Chen as the same couple who fall
in love in three different periods of time. The first segment is
set in 1966, where a soldier boy falls for a sexy girl in a pool
hall. Reminiscent of Wong Kar Wai's mid-career films like As
Tears Go By and Days of Being Wild, it is remarkably
moving and evocative in its depiction of young love.

The second segment is set in a brothel in 1911, where a beautiful
courtesan pines for a young activist who will never truly love her.
Playing like a silent movie with intertitles, it portrays unrequited
love in all its pained glory. Finally, the third segment is set
in 2005, where a young rock star falls passionately in love with
a bisexual photo-shop employee even though she already has a lesbian
girlfriend.

Three Times explores what it means to be young and in
love. Although these characters are distinctly separated by time
and circumstance, their hearts often beat as one. Shu Qi and Chang
Chen give strong performances, while Hou Hsiao-hsien guides us through
the complex terrain of human emotions with a typically steady hand.
Mainstream audiences might find this film frustratingly quiet and
slow-paced, but art-cinema lovers will bask in its atmospheric glow.