For obvious reasons, we are watching the Taiwanese film Three Times now.

Directed by Hou Hsiao-Hsie, Three Times is a Mandarin language film featuring three separate love stories set in different periods.

Released in 2005, the movie was well received by critics (as if what critics say matters anymore in the age of Kambakkht Ishq).

Three Times was nominated for the Palme d’Or at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival. It won the Best Taiwanese Film award at the 2005 Golden Horse film festival.

After watching the movie, we’ll update this post later tonight.

Update
Is Three Times a great movie?

No, we don’t think so.

But it most definitely is a different kind of movie.

Not your father’s Bollywood or Hollywood romance.

There are three separate love stories set in 1966, 1911 and 2005 (in that order in the movie) featuring the same pair of actors.

The acting is good. No complaints on that front.

The stories are not bad.

We are unsure if we should tell you an interesting tidbit concerning the movie.

What the heck, we’ll do it anyway. In the second story, set in Dadaocheng of 1911, there’s no sound at all through the entire episode. You can see the actors speaking but you won’t hear any sound.

The words flash on the screen in Mandarin accompanied by a pleasing background music.

Interesting technique. We didn’t find it jarring.

  Three Times film