Three Times

The common trait of great directors is the trust they have on their cameras. They plan their shots, set it up, and let the cameras do their work. It requires supreme competence and confidence to do it. The lesser directors want to move things around, cut it this way and that, put in cheesy dialogues and music, just in case their cameras cannot do what they want them to do. Perhaps no one working sets up his camera and let it work better than Hou Hsiao-Hsien 候孝賢. In his new film “Three Times 最好的時光,“ his camera is our eyes. It observed calmly and richly. It’s relative stillness allowed us to see the subtleties and nuances of what was in front—the actors, their characters and their environments. With minimal dialogues, the stories unfolded in a simplicity that allowed the stories’ depth of universality to become clear without the audience realizing. It is a truly a masterpiece, far superior to his last couple of films.