The focus is on a hanging plant, it’s metal rungs, the leaves. The background is blurry. It’s 1966, in a pool hall in Taipei, the capital of Taiwan. “A Time for Love.” Yet it’s that classic sort of love. Its classic because it’s instantaneous. It’s that time, that age, you’re ready, you find her, you know it, and you court her. You know little of her, but that is more than satisfactory.
Chen is a young army conscript who falls for May, a beautiful pool-hall hostess. Their flirtation is wordless. Chen takes long drags of his filterless cigarettes and as the flame burns, he contemplates into the air. “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes,” the 60s pop song by The Platters plays in the background. May, wearing a silk blouse tucked into a long skirt, exudes sex appeal.
She stares directly at him for a while with a smile, then looks down, exploding into a giggle. This is their interaction. Her coquettiish ways and his autere, yet calm demeanor. He has to report back the following morning, so all they have is the night, a silently comfortable meal, and each other’s hand to hold under the umbrella. A pitch black sky.
“A Time for Freedom.” It’s 1911 in Taipei, under Imperial Japan. Mister Chang is a revolutionary newspaperman and Qi is his concubine in a brothel. They speak daily devoid of affection, sipping their tea, and sitting proper.
All of a sudden we are zooming along the highway on a motorcycle. This is now modern day Taipei 2005.
She is clinging on the back tightly, fists clenched/interlocked around his waist.
He the photographer, she the epileptic lesbian singer. Their relationship is one of passionate, steamy lovemaking in the hallway.
If based solely on this, their lives seem intertwined and inextricably linked. Their unbridled amorousness incapable of being doused.
But this is the twenty-first century. Deception and misconceptions. Cell phones, text messaging, missed calls, jealous lesbian lovers. “A Time for Youth.”
When was life better, simpler, less complicated? 1966,1911, 2005.
This is Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien’s latest called Three Times. Three years, 3 love stories, same 2 actors, Taipei. Truly of cinematographic brilliance.
Indeed - an excellent film, from an excellent director. Chang Shen is one of my favorite actors lately and Shu Qi was a very pleasant surprise.