
Time to Live and A Time to Die, A
Hsiao-Hsien Hou / TW, 1985
To mark the premiere of The Assassin, the latest film by the Taiwanese director Hou Hsia-hsien, EYE is releasing two of his earlier films to theatres. Hou’s autobiographical masterpiece A Time to Live and a Time to Die was the film most often mentioned by filmmakers in the ‘All Time Top Ten’ list published by the Dutch newspaper Het Parool in 1995.

Hou filmed his childhood years in the 1950s and 1960s against the backdrop of Taiwan”s history. His family chronicle bears the hallmarks of a documentary but is at the same time a compelling personal drama.
Hou Hsia-hsien (1947), whose parents escaped to Taiwan following Mao”s victory, grew up near a military base in the south of Taiwan. The 1960s and 1970s were years of social and political upheaval. Industrialisation and urbanisation brought prosperity to the country, but old traditions and customs fell apart as Taiwanese society became increasingly westernized .
The film was praised as a “cinematographic poem” thanks to Hou Hsiao-hsien”s refined visual style in bringing across both the child”s and the adolescent”s emotional world. With Anshun You and Feng Tian.
Details
Director
Hsiao-Hsien Hou
Production year
1985
Country
TW
Original title
Tongnian wangshi
Subtitles
NLD
Format
DCP - encrypted


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