Movie Review: Three Times

Whenever I see a Hou Hsiao-Hsien film I enter into a different viewing mode, which I like to call "the Zone." My metabolism slows down, my breathing becomes deeper, I focus my attention on the screen, and for a couple of hours, nothing else exists. While I'm in this trance of sorts, my perception of time changes to the extent that the Taiwanese director's deliberate pacing feels like snappy MTV-style editing. Every tiny incident or sidelong glance is magnified and imbued with the importance and impact of a CGI-enhanced explosion.

Three Times is not as glacially paced as Hou's Ozu tribute, Café Lumière, which so wowed me last year. Nevertheless the filmmaker's trademark minimalism was well and truly in effect, and before I knew it, I'd entered the Zone.

The three times of the title are 1966, 1911, and 2005, when each of the film's segments are set. Each movement sees a minimalist romance play out against a different era of Taiwanese history, and features the same duo of gifted actors: Shu Qi (Hou's Millenium Mambo) and Chang Chen (Wong Kar-Wai's Happy Together, The Hand).

The first segment — 1966's "A Time for Love" — begins in a smoky billiard hall of Kaohsiung, where May and Chen play a game to "Smoke Gets in your Eyes." There are smiles, discreet glances, circling movements around the room, next to no dialogue. Hou uses the geography of a pool table and the metaphor of billiard balls brushing against one another to convey the promise of a burgeoning love affair. That short scene contains the central theme of Three Times: that love, longing, or grief can be expressed or hidden in a variety of ways, which determine whether we choose to inhabit or escape a prison of our own making.

After that initial brief encounter at the billiard hall, Chen goes off to military service, knowing very little about May beyond her name. Yet a few beautifully composed shots, a song, a smile, and a simple letter are enough to convince us and ensure Chen and May's eventual reunion is only a matter of time. As "A Time for Love" ends, we have learned to treasure this promise as much as the two protagonists. We also know that this uplifting, romantic conclusion is but one of love's possible outcomes, a rare occurence which happens perhaps only if the time is right.

Article Author: Matt Riviera

Matt Riviera suffers from terminal wanderlust, a penchant for daydreaming and the tendency to function under the mistaken assumption that reality can rarely compete with fiction.

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