- English name：Three Times / Tiempos de amor / juventud y libertad
- Broadcast time：October 28, 2005
- Starring：舒淇（Shu Kei）、张震（Chang Chen）、梅芳、廖淑珍、狄玫
- director：侯孝贤（Hou Hsiao-hsien）
Introduction
Today, I will introduce a Chinese film which called Three Times (最好的時光zuì hǎo de shí guāng). So let us have a brief introduction.
Three Times is a 2005 Taiwanese film directed by Hou Hsiao-Hsien (侯孝贤Hóu Xiàoxián). It features three chronologically separate stories of love between May and Chen, set in 1911, 1966 and 2005,
Background
Three Times was originally meant to be an omnibus collection of short films, with Hou Hsiao-hsien directing only one of the segments. The producers were unable to rustle the financing to be able to hire three directors, so instead, Hou took over production.
This is a very fabulous film.
Plot
The film tells three love stories in different periods.
1966, Love Dream
The boy who was about to join the army wrote a letter to Haruko, the scorer in the billiard room, but Haruko casually put the letter in the drawer. Haruko left, and Xiumei, who came to take over the job, saw the letter. The boy went to find Haruko but didn’t meet her, and was very disappointed. Xiumei felt it was interesting. The day before the boy joined the army, he played billiard with Xiumei until late. Soon, Xiumei received a letter from the boy from the camp.
During the holiday, the boy took a long bus back and went to the billiard room to find Xiumei, but Xiumei left. The scorer who took over Xiumei said that Xiumei went to a billiard room in Chiayi. The boy took a bus to Chiayi to look for her, but she was not there.
The boy took a bus to Huwei and found Xiumei’s home according to the address on the envelope. Xiumei’s mother said that Xiumei had written a letter back and took the letter to the boy. Finally, the boy found Xiumei in the billiard room in the new camp. However, the boy’s holiday was over. After eating noodles, Xiumei sent him to the Highway Bureau Station to take a bus.
1911, Dream of Freedom
The courtesan welcomed the man. This time he could stay for five days. The main reason was that Mr. Liang came to Taiwan from Japan. Everyone welcomed him at the Donghuifang Restaurant. Mr. Liang gave a one-hour speech, which moved everyone. The courtesan asked if he was Mr. Liang, who had fled to Japan after the failure of the Reform Movement of 1898. The man would accompany Mr. Liang to Taichung in five days. The courtesan asked about the man’s family situation.
The next day, the father and son of the tea shop came to discuss the redemption of his sister. The man asked about it and found out that his sister was pregnant. He was the owner of the tea shop and wanted to marry his sister as a concubine. He was willing to pay 200 taels, but the old lady wanted 300 taels, so the deal fell through. The man was willing to make up 100 taels. The courtesan asked, “You often write articles to advocate the abolition of the bad habit of keeping concubines. Now is it time to go against it?” The man thought that it was done and he had to make it happen.
The deal was done and the sister was very grateful to her sister. The dan taught her sister to be polite when getting married, but she couldn’t help but feel sad about her life. When the man came back from Taichung, the sister had already married and her mother was looking for an adopted daughter. Originally, the sister could redeem the dan and marry after she could pick up the dan business, but now her mother asked the dan to stay for a while.
The sister and the tea shop owner came home to thank the man for helping with the ransom. After the sister left, the dan finally asked the man what her future plans were? The man was speechless. Three months later, the dan received a letter from the man, who was in Tokyo, Japan, and had handed the fundraising to Mr. Liang and was going to Shanghai. The man visited the Chunfan Tower in Maguan during this trip and remembered Mr. Liang’s poem:
Knowing that this is a sad place, I also came back to Weizhou. How many things have happened in the past seventeen years, the evening waves are sad under the Chunfan Tower.
The poem talks about the shame of ceding Taiwan in the Treaty of Shimonoseki, but it also seems like the man’s love for her. The dan shed tears.
2005, Youth Dream
Zhen and Jing, in passion. Jing is a premature baby with a hole in his heart. His right eye is gradually blind and can only see blocks of color. He has to take epilepsy medicine every day. Jing is a singer-songwriter and lives with his mother and grandmother. Jing’s girlfriend Micky is still in school and works in a nightclub on weekends. She often stays at Jing’s house and loves Jing fiercely. Zhen is the manager of a digital service photo processing shop and plays with LOMO cameras. The three people have an unsolvable entanglement.
