Three Times

Three Times (2005) tells three separate love stories, and the same two actors appear in all of them: Shu Qi and Chang Chen. The first is set in 1966. He is a soldier on leave, she works in a snooker hall. It is called A Time for Love and runs almost entirely inside one room, on a few glances and a letter. The second is set in 1911, and the boldest choice in the film is here: Hou Hsiao-hsien shot it as a silent film. There are intertitles and piano and no spoken dialogue. The reason is inside the story: she is an indentured courtesan and has no voice to begin with. The form states the subject directly. The third is set in 2005. He is a photographer, she is a singer, both are permanently on motorbikes and permanently texting. It is the most talkative section and the least understood; as the means of communication multiply, the contact thins out. The three parts are about longing, silencing and disconnection in that order. Hou runs the same relationship through three periods of Taiwanese history and something different blocks it each time. The first section is usually the favourite, and for some viewers it is the most beautiful half hour Hou ever shot. It runs 130 minutes. Good for: art cinema, Taiwanese cinema, and patient viewers. Less good for: the pace is very slow, the takes are long, and many find the third section cold.