Showing posts with label Country: Taiwan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Country: Taiwan. Show all posts

Three Times (2005)

| Saturday, December 31, 2005 | 0 comments |
AKA 最好的時光 (Zuì hǎo de shí guāng)

Directed by
Hsiao-hsien Hou

Writing credits
T'ien-wen Chu
Hsiao-hsien Hou


Three stories set in three times, 1911, 1966 and 2005. Two actors (Qi Shu and Chen Chang) play the two main characters in each story:

A Time for Love
(Chinese: 戀愛夢; pinyin: liàn ài mèng) Set in Kaohsiung in 1966, with dialogue in Taiwanese Hokkien.

A Time for Freedom
(Chinese: 自由夢; pinyin: zì yóu mèng) Set in Dadaocheng in 1911, with dialogue presented only through on-screen captions.

A Time for Youth
(Chinese: 青春夢; pinyin: qīng chūn mèng) Set in Taipei in 2005, with dialogue in Mandarin.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0459666/

Café Lumière (2003)

| Tuesday, October 12, 2004 | 0 comments |
AKA 珈琲時光 (Kōhī Jikō)

Directed by
Hsiao-hsien Hou

Writing credits
Hsiao-hsien Hou
T'ien-wen Chu


The story revolves around a young Japanese woman (played by Hitoto Yo) doing research on Taiwanese composer Jiang Wen-Ye, whose work is featured on the soundtrack. The late composer's Japanese wife and daughter also make appearances as themselves.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0412596/

A City of Sadness (1989)

| Tuesday, November 4, 2003 | 0 comments |
AKA 悲情城市 (bēiqíng chéngshì)

Directed by
Hsiao-hsien Hou

Writing credits
T'ien-wen Chu
Nien-Jen Wu



The film depicts the Lin family's experiences during the White Terror. The eldest brother Wen-Heung (Sung Young Chen) is murdered by a Shanghai mafia boss, the middle brother Wen-Leung (Jack Kao) suffers a traumatic brain injury in a KMT jailhouse, and the youngest brother Wen-Ching (Tony Leung Chiu Wai), who is both deaf and mute, hopes to flee to the mountains with his friend to fight in the anti-KMT resistance movement. By the end of the film even the photographer Wen-Ching has been arrested by the authorities, leaving only his wife to tell the story of the family's destruction.

Wen-Ching's deafness began as an expedient to disguise Tony Leung's inability to speak Taiwanese (or Japanese - the language taught in Taiwan's schools during the 51 year occupation), but wound up being an effective means to demonstrate the brutal insensitivity of Chen Yi's ROC administration.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096908/

Vive L'Amour (1994)

| Friday, January 10, 2003 | 0 comments |
AKA 愛情萬歲 (Aiqing wansui)

Directed by
Ming-liang Tsai

Writing credits
Ming-liang Tsai        
Yi-chun Tsai        
Pi-ying Yang



Hsiao-kang (Lee Kang-sheng), a young salesman, discovers a key to an apartment in its lock and takes it. He soon moves into one of the bedrooms, and one night he attempts to commit suicide by slitting his wrists while lying on the bed.

Meanwhile, Ah-jung (Chen Chao-jung) is drinking coffee at a cafe when a beautiful real estate agent, May Lin (Yang Kuei-Mei), sits at the table next to his. Intrigued, he follows her as she walks down the street. Lin catches on and eventually joins him. She leads him to a vacant apartment that she is trying to sell — the same apartment that Hsiao-kang is staying in — and they have sex in one of the bedrooms. Hsiao-kang hears them and stops the bleeding from his wrists.

Ah-jung steals the key to the apartment from Lin and later returns with his belongings. He moves into one of the adjoining bedrooms. That night, he and Hsiao-kang encounter each other in the apartment and have a short argument.

May Lin spends her day trying to sell property. While taking a break, she returns to the apartment when Hsiao-kang and Ah-jung are both there. The two sneak out quietly together and soon form a friendship.

One night, Hsiao-kang goes out for a walk and meets Ah-jung selling dresses on the street. May Lin walks past but does not notice them. Soon, Ah-jung joins her at a food stand and the two return to the apartment and sleep together in the same room as they did the first time. Unbeknownst to them, Hsiao-kang is hiding under the bed as they arrive, and he masturbates as the bed creaks above him.

The next morning, May Lin gets dressed and leaves. Hsiao-kang lies next to the sleeping Ah-jung and kisses him before slowly pulling away. Lin goes to her car but cannot start it and instead walks on a pathway near some construction sites. She then sits down on a bench and starts to cry uncontrollably.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109066/