Thursday, July 19, 2012

Three Times (2005) - Taiwanese Movie


After seeing like a dozen Korean, Chinese, Japanese movies, I can definitely say that either their movies are subtle, sincere, simple, meaningful yet amazing or they are over the top action with blood and gore, so much so that they are not everybody's cup of coffee. The movie that I saw today was a Taiwanese movie made in 2005 from the first category. How cool is the idea of shooting three separate stories set in three different times (1911, 1966 and 2005) played by same lead actors. Sounds familiar? Yeah, we saw a Hindi movie (Teri Meri Kahaani) based on the same idea but that's where the comparison ends as this one is such a simple and adorable movie – I am sure no one can make anything similar to this in India from the current generation and the one guy who made similar stuff is long gone. This movie reminded me big time of Satyajit Ray with its simplicity, almost no dialogues, hardly any background score but just simple / soothing love songs playing in the background. It's a must watch for serious and meaningful cinema lovers. 

Story 1: A time for love (1966): This story has hardly any dialogues – only damn good love songs as background score. It’s a very simple story of a guy going for military training, falls in love with a girl where he plays snooker, they write letters to each other while he is away. He comes back after couple of years only to find that she is already left the place. Somehow finds her house, visits her mom, has a lead, will he be able to get her? Is she still waiting for him all these years? Story 2: A time for freedom (1911): This story has no dialogues either – almost a mute movie with captions as dialogues. Based on the life and times of a courtesan, who looks forward to one of his clients as her ticket to freedom. Will she get it in the end? Would he marry her and take her away? Story 3: A time for youth (2005): Final story of a young couple, madly in love. Both of them are suffering from two different diseases – yet they live a good life in each others company. Based on the current times with mobile phones, computer and technology. Even this section too has hardly any dialogues but the simple treatment and visually strong movie never makes you miss the interaction as everything is quite simple and understandable.

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