A ravishing triptych spanning a century of Taiwanese history, in which love remains eternally elusive.
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09/14/06
Three Times (2006)
86
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:21
Fresh:18
Rotten:3
Average Rating:7.8/10
Consensus: Slowly paced, understated, and exquisitely shot, these are three lovely odes to love and longing.
Theatrical Release:Apr 26, 2006 Limited
Synopsis: The film features three different stories of love and memory through three time periods, 1966, 1911 and 2005. The first, "A Time for Love," hinges on the meeting of soldier boy Chen with pool hall... [More]
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Reviews for Three Times
Top CriticA film to get lost in, a fragmentary, impressionistic trilogy of fleeting moments of love that is one of the best films of the year.
07/07/06
Top CriticSeen in isolation, the first episode has the most satisfying plot and the last the least. But the film's achievement lies mostly in the beautifully articulated similarities and differences among the three.
06/23/06
Top CriticThree varieties of love: unfulfilled, mercenary, meaningless. All photographed with such visual beauty that watching the movie is like holding your breath so the butterfly won't stir.
06/23/06
Top CriticGreat cinema, pop romance that carries a special charge.
06/22/06
Top CriticCan a film be exquisite and, at the same time, less than one hoped for? This question arose as Three Times unfolded.
05/19/06
Top CriticA discreetly cosmic, majestic trilogy.
05/13/06
Top CriticThe deceptive simplicity of these vignettes, written by Chu Tien-wen, throws into relief Hou's formidable storytelling strengths and visual acuity -- his way with actors, his subtlety and expressiveness.
05/12/06
Top CriticDo Hou's films deserve to be seen? Absolutely, if only to end the myth that they're too perfect for this world.
05/03/06
Top Critic... a lyrical, subtle, chaste and nearly wordless romance between a giggly pool-hall hostess and a former customer on a one-night leave from the military.
04/28/06
Top CriticThe first section of "Three Times" is fabulous; the second is fascinating if remote; and the third a jangly, modernist mess.
04/27/06
Top CriticAccording to one American critic, Three Times is 'why cinema exists.' Only if you think that cinema has no higher calling that presenting a long series of gorgeously lit closeups of beautiful actresses are you likely to agree.
04/27/06
Top CriticThree Times is anchored by the performance of Shu Qi.
04/26/06
Top CriticA trilogy of desire from the Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien in which the same actress and actor play variations on lovers in three distinct historical periods.
04/25/06
Top CriticWhile it's impossible to deny that the film is interesting and unique, it's not the kind of motion picture that will cause the average viewer to run out and urge his friends to make a trip to one of the obscure art houses where it's playing.
04/25/06
Top CriticIs there another filmmaker who can so fluidly celebrate the moment as well as the epoch, and do so in the same shot?
04/25/06
Top CriticA triptych of unrequited romantic tales.
03/17/06
Top CriticLike Wong Kar-wai, Hou's interest in the unspoken nature of desire means his movie is sensually alive to the way love overwhelms and transforms one's experience of the world.
12/24/05
Top CriticSynthesizing Hou Hsiao-hsien's ambivalent relationship with time and memory, Three Times forms a handy connecting arc between the Taiwanese helmer's earlier work and the increasingly fragmentary direction of his recent films.
12/24/05
Top CriticIn spite of its undeniable aesthetic and cinematic value, though, the film lacks the emotional engagement and social importance of [the director's] classic work of the 1980s and early '90s.
10/06/05
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