the solitary island

“Sometimes films ignore other points of view because it’s simpler to tell the story that way, but the more genuine and sympathetic you are to different points of view and situations, the more real the story is.”

Three Times (最好的時光). dir. Hou Hsiao-Hsien (侯孝賢). 2005.

Three Times, or lit. Best of Times, is a Taiwanese film directed by Hou Hsiao-Hsien and released in 2005. It is a film about yearning to love and to be loved. Exploring the different types of meaningful and meaningless love and infatuation, it follows each course in a dreamy, trance-like state. 

The film is comprised of three chronologically separate love stories between the characters May and Chen, played by Shu Qi and Chang Chen. The first segment, A Time for Love (戀愛夢, is set in 1966 Kaohsiung. With dialogue in Taiwanese Hokkien, a soldier encounters a pool-hall hostess. A Time for Freedom (自由夢) is set in 1911 Dadaocheng and shot in a silent film style. The theme of love and the theme of freedom intertwines when a young courtesan in Taiwan dreaming of liberty finds herself entangled in a relationship with a frequent visitor. The final installment, A Time for Youth (青春夢), is set in modern Taipei, with Mandarin dialogue. A female singer leaves her female lover for a photographer.

The film was nominated for the Palme d’Or at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival and won Best Taiwanese Film of the Year, Best Actress (Shu Qi) and Best Taiwanese Filmmaker (Hou Hsiao-Hsien) at the 2005 Golden Horse Awards.