I just saw this last night (watching it back-to-back with A Wayward Cloud), and just have a these comments/questions: I like the overall somewhat muted/faded cinematography (not drab, as the uses of color/lighting still stand out strongly - but it's as if a gossamer fog suffuses a perpetually overcast, lukewarm environment) - does anyone know what/if anything was done to treat the film itself to achieve this effect? I also like how sound is used to bridge the mimetic and diegetic aspects of the narrative (the addition of white noise in the first 2 segments, esp the second, for example - i had thought something was wrong w/ my stereo and tried to adjust it!). Diegetic sounds become expressive, and expressive music becomes also a product of their times.
The second segment is probably my favorite. In the first one I think Hou is the most self-assured, and the studied yet natural shots of the pool halls and the trajectories of the balls are simply amazing, but the 'story' I feel is just a little too saccharin for me (on second thought it IS a Time for Love, and nostalgia). The pan-Taiwan shots of the black-and-white town signs as they're traveled to are also great.
The third segment is very slick, and captures the self-involvement yet directionlessness of contemporary Youth well, and the final scene of the moped descending below the bridge, yet the tracking camera stays absolutely level and we simply get a shot of just the bridge, the traffic, the people, the river, the buildings, and the island itself, until the moped ascends & appears again - is sublime.
The middle segment I feel has the most emotional as well as historical weight. There is humor (the silent-movie format - Hou lightly 'experimenting', Shu Qi lipsynching the old Chinese song performance), gorgeous but not obscene sets, more characterization, and resonance. The scene where she walks alongside the Mother down the foyer is great. The repeated lighting of the oil lamp (I like how even when the caption reads Wuchang Uprising, the man goes about the lighting like it's any other day), and then the final injection of 'real' sound (yet it's more silent than before)...there are too many 'moments' to describe.
The triplex structure also extends to the three actresses (including Shu Qi) in each segment, in different roles. The lines 'A Yen sign tattooed on my back, Come on, Name a price, I want to sell my soul, No past, No future, Just the hungry present' are great! (Chu Tienwen is a brilliant writer.) Is there a soundtrack made from the movie?
The second segment is probably my favorite. In the first one I think Hou is the most self-assured, and the studied yet natural shots of the pool halls and the trajectories of the balls are simply amazing, but the 'story' I feel is just a little too saccharin for me (on second thought it IS a Time for Love, and nostalgia). The pan-Taiwan shots of the black-and-white town signs as they're traveled to are also great.
The third segment is very slick, and captures the self-involvement yet directionlessness of contemporary Youth well, and the final scene of the moped descending below the bridge, yet the tracking camera stays absolutely level and we simply get a shot of just the bridge, the traffic, the people, the river, the buildings, and the island itself, until the moped ascends & appears again - is sublime.
The middle segment I feel has the most emotional as well as historical weight. There is humor (the silent-movie format - Hou lightly 'experimenting', Shu Qi lipsynching the old Chinese song performance), gorgeous but not obscene sets, more characterization, and resonance. The scene where she walks alongside the Mother down the foyer is great. The repeated lighting of the oil lamp (I like how even when the caption reads Wuchang Uprising, the man goes about the lighting like it's any other day), and then the final injection of 'real' sound (yet it's more silent than before)...there are too many 'moments' to describe.
The triplex structure also extends to the three actresses (including Shu Qi) in each segment, in different roles. The lines 'A Yen sign tattooed on my back, Come on, Name a price, I want to sell my soul, No past, No future, Just the hungry present' are great! (Chu Tienwen is a brilliant writer.) Is there a soundtrack made from the movie?