A Time to Live and a Time to Die

viewed January 16, 2000 at the Asian Art Museum

For further details on this film, click here.

The final screening I attended at "The Films of Hou Hsiao Hsien" series was the film that broke him into the world festival circuit, a lovely semi-autobiographical piece based somewhat on his own boyhood in Taiwan -- and boy, if the story detailed in this film has any close bearing on his actual experiences, it is no wonder that there is such a powerful sense of loss and nostalgia pervading all of his films.  By the time this film reaches its sad conclusion, all of the adults of the family have passed away -- and with them the living connections to the Mainland in which they lived before the Chinese Civil War. 

This film is charming in far more conventional ways than Hou's later, more demanding work.  It is episodic, filled with scenes that are sweet in the childhood way of Hope and Glory or Pather Panchali, or heartbreaking, especially the scene when the family gathers around its deceased patriarch.  Much technique is owed to Yasujiro Ozu -- the floor-level shots, shots through open doorways, and steady pacing are very functional to what Hou is after.  It is only in his later films that he takes his steady pacing even further, lengthening the takes and allowing the camera more time to slowly explore the parameters of the tableau.

Appreciating the films of Hou Hsiao-Hsien requires more than a couple screenings of his films.  I consider this film an excellent starting point, unless one wants to be completey baffled or blown away by seeing Good Men, Good Women or Flowers of Shanghai.

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