Three Times
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Movie Reviews of Three Times
Movie Review: A haunting film that just won't let go
Summary: 5 Stars
"Three Times" is much more than it appears on first viewing (as I also find to be the case with "Millenium Mambo"). While little appears to transpire on screen in any of the film's three stories, each segment worms its into your subconscious where they do their work over days, even weeks. There is a haunting quality, especially in the performance of Shu Qi, where she alternately enchants and seduces before, in the end, breaking your heart. In this film she is simply enthralling. What a long way she has come since her Category III days in Hong Kong; in "Three Times" she shows herself to be one of Asia's great actresses.Movie Review: Best Foreign Film Of 2006
Summary: 5 Stars
I can understand that without certain historical knowledge and an understanding of the current culture of Taiwan, the second and the third piece could be somewhat difficult to related. But the first story is absolutely a masterpiece. It contains minimum plot (if you would call it a plot), minimum dialogue (no more than 10 words in each conversation), yet it makes you fall in love with the characters. Is it possible to blame the critics for calling it anything other than "magic"?
Movie Review: Oriental Splendor
Summary: 5 Stars
I caught this film by chance on the Independent Film Channel. After watching it several times, I finally ordered the DVD. I found the film stunning, haunting, mesmerizing. The director and actors catch the zeitgeist of each period, the relationship of the sexes, the longing, the beauty of love in a way I have never seen in occidental cinema. The East has an esthetic that is probably inaccessible to us westerners. But it is enchanting to be able to enjoy it now and then.Movie Review: i would fain watch again
Summary: 5 Stars
what a nice movie. i love how the relationship is replicated through the years. i like how the movie is not so overt as to thrust the relationship onto you, but only seems to be showing you natural happenings.Movie Review: "Waiting Is the Hardest Part"
Summary: 4 Stars
Taking on love and history, three films from China's 'Three Times' come together showing how life is full of waiting and longing, unfulfilled wishes and the slow steps it takes to their realizations. The first film takes place in 1966; the second in 1911; and the last in 2005. Each focuses on a man and woman in love (Shu Qi and Chang Chen), with each scene showing the deliberate patience of its protagonists (and by the way, requiring it of the audience) waiting for fruition in political developments and love relationships waiting for consummation. Each film is framed with a woman singing a romantic song, depicting the sweet and sour of life.
In 'A Time for Love' (1966) May works at various pool halls, playing with male customers and maintaining the felt on the table. Patiently, she gets various letters from a boyfriend who frequented the pool hall, but is stationed in the Chinese army. When he returns he looks all over to find her. Beautiful romantic ballads and a version of Pachebel's 'Canon in D' serenade them. Their quiet moments together speak volumes.
Then, we're taken through 'A Time for Freedom' (1911) in a placid household filled with tranquil still lifes of a still-ancient Chinese setting. Piano music with oriental rhythms serenade each scene as the dialogue is revealed on the screen like a silent film. The soft development takes through meals and drinking tea with conversations about China's negotiations with Japan and a woman, Ah Mei's, consequential need for a dowry. The subject of the morality of keeping concubines is also discussed.
Next, 'A Time for Youth' fast-forwards to the present. Such a startling contrast to the last film, our lovers are on a motorcycle going through the modern roadways of Taipei. Although without all the waiting and ritual of the previous eras, our two lovers seem even less happy. They have all their freedoms and trappings of electronic gadgetry, but their lives gel less. The woman also has a girlfriend and keeps both her lovers on a short leash by her cell phone. She suffers crying spells, and the song she sings at the modern club is filled with anguished desperation.
Don't expect 'Three Times' to jump out at you. 'Three Times' is a beautifully shifting mood piece that works like a series of paintings. It is a fine composite of a hundred years of China's history framed by love stories and exquisitely shot backdrops that quietly ask us to wait for gratification just like our protagonists. Idyllic and moving, 'Three Times' is a gentle capsule of love and history throughout the century. Like our own 'Old Joy,' it placidly creates its revelations at a deliberate pace.