the new film from the much lauded tiawanese director hou hsiao-hsien is a trio of love stories; all starring shu qi (who won a 'best actress' golden horse for this role) and chang chen.

'a time for love' - 1966 - inspired by hou's own memories of playing pool, listening to the radio playing 'smoke gets in your eyes' by the platters. may begins working at a pool hall and finds a letter, left by chen as he went to undertake military service for the previous attendant, haruko. one day chen returns, looking for haruko, but he finds may in her place and the two bond over a few games of snooker, before chen returns to the military. the next time chen returns, may has moved on, but chen sets off to find her...

'a time for freedom' - 1911, during the japanese occupation - probably my favourite segment. a solemn story of the relationship between a courtesan and mr chang; a man who is wholly devoted and passionate about achieving freedom for his country, but unable to express his emotions for the courtesan whom he loves. the story is presented as a silent film, punctuated by intertitles with a soundtrack of traditional chinese song and classical piano pieces. simply beautiful.

'a time for youth' - 2005 - contemporary taipei, chen is a photographer, who is having an affair with jing. jing is a singer in a band, she is an epileptic, a tortured soul and her lover is being driven to despair as she has her suspicions about jings unfaithfulness...

this is a very good film, the three segments are very different in their feel, but they complement each other nicely. huo and his collaborators; chu tien-wen (writer), mark lee (cinematographer), hwang wen-ying (production designer) and do duk-ji (sound designer), make this a beautiful film to experience. shu qi and chang chen are fantastic in all three of their roles.

very good...