Three Times

Shu Qi and Chang Chen

Hou Hsiao-Hsien's Three Times, from 2005, is tripartite masterwork that evoke three periods of Taiwanese history through the prism of a central romantic relationship. In each section of the film, the lovers are portrayed by the same duo of actors, Shu Qi and Chang Chen. They give us a master class in acting, fully inhabiting a distinctly different array of characters. Hou gives each segment a slight variation in style, but there is visual cohesion in his use of fades to black, slow pans back and forth for group scenes, and a fixed camera when lovers are alone together.

The first section, subtitled "A Time for Love", is set in 1966. Titles and graphics are an important motif and theme in the film as we see communication evolve in Taiwan from calligraphy to cell phone texts and GarageBand. Shu Qi plays a pool hall girl who attracts the interest of a soldier. The course of love is hard to navigate in a romantic fog, so the film opens with "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" on the soundtrack as a warning. The soldier persists in his pursuit and is rewarded because of his doggedness. The second section, subtitled " A Time for Freedom" and set in 1911 tells the tale of a courtesan who yearns to cohabit with her favorite. The constraints put upon her by traditional customs are mirrored by the characters' concern about the subjugation of China by Japan. Hou films the second section as a silent film with intertitles for the dialogue. Fortunately, he chose to film in color because the costumes and sets are gorgeous.

The transitory nature of time is an important theme in almost all of Hou's films. As we travel through the decades in Three Times, attributes of life are lost and found. China was able to shake free of Japanese influence and women gained a degree of freedom, but traditions that served to bind Chinese culture, like the traditional songs Shu Qi sings, virtually disappeared. Shu Qi plays a Western Pop influenced singer in the third section set in 2004 and subtitled "A Time for Youth". She is in a lesbian relationship, but is boffing a stoic graphic artist(!) played by Chang Chen. The girlfriend is none too pleased, but Shu Qi's character falls for the lug and rides off with him at the end of the film. The use of motor bikes and cycles in the two more modern sections of the film suggests the increasing mobility, social and otherwise, in Taiwanese society. The Taipei of the concluding section of the film is crowded, busy, and clamorous, in direct opposition to what we see of 1911 Taiwan.

The romantic pairings of Three Times move through stages of concubinage, courtship, and, ultimately, ambivalence. So, as Hou views it, there is a cost to the growth of individual freedom in society, but, though he mourns the past, he doesn't want to go back and knows he can't. Hou's style is deliberate, some characterize it as slow, but I am glad he takes the time to luxuriate in the moment.