Three Times

With virtually every shot a small, polished jewel of composition and color, Hou Hsiao Hsien's tripartite ode to love and his native Taiwan is told in three separate stories set in three different time periods, but all starring the same actress and actor. It's simply one of the most beautiful films he's made to date. The first "time" is "A Time for Love," set in 1966, when a pretty young woman named May (Shu Qi) arrives in Kaohsiung and finds a job as a hostess at a billiards parlor. One day a good looking soldier named Chen (Chang Chen) arrives looking for Haruko, the parlor's previous hostess with whom he'd fallen in love, but learns that she's since moved on. After...