May 19, 2016
In Our Time –
Taiwan, 1982
For the first hour, In
Our Time fascinates and moves like few other films. And then it doesn’t,
getting bogged down in intentionally vague conversations about a competitive
event and even vaguer notions of nationalistic pride on a college campus. It’s
as if the makers of the film knew that if people talked normally and actually
were clear with each other, the audience would release a collective grain of
incredulity. After all, when a film spends fifteen minutes keeping something
hidden, the secret had better be worth the wait. Here, it is a bit of a
letdown. The film then compounds this mistake by closing with a segment whose
tone is so utterly inconsistent with what has come before it that it leaves a
rather sour aftertaste for some time after the film’s final credits and may
lesson the viewer’s overall experience.
In Our Time is a
meditation on the stages of life and the influence that changing times can have
upon our perceptions of culture, individuality, and identity. There are four
segments, each directed by someone who was relatively new to Taiwanese cinema
in 1982. None of the segments have any direct connection, and as a result, the
film is the equivalent of a stack of unfinished novels, some that made me long
for more and others that I couldn’t put away fast enough. The first segment,
directed by Te-Chen Tao, takes place in Taiwan in the 1950s, and in it we see a
picture of a family struggling to cope with their new reality. Their method of
doing so involves seeing no faults in one son and no virtues in the other. The
segment is powerful, shedding light on the impact of bullying and favoritism,
yet also allowing viewers to see the hope that someone different can inspire.
It is easily my favorite of the four segments.
In the second segment, directed by Edward Yang, the young
girl from the previous segment, Hsiao-fa, has become a teenager and is pulled,
as teenagers are wont to be, by the forces of individuality and sudden interest
in the opposite sex. I enjoyed this segment quite a lot and admired the skills
of its lead actress, who conveys a great deal with just subtle turns of the
head and slight variations in her facial expression. Yang relies too heavily on
flashbacks, however, often unnecessarily employing them to remind viewers of
events they just saw five minutes earlier. His use of slow motion and close-ups
are more effective, though, especially in a scene that focuses on Hsiao-fa’s
impressions of the young college student who rents an apartment from her
mother. We understand exactly what Hsiao-fa is seeing and exactly what it means
that she fixates on it.
It is in the film’s third segments that I began to lose
interest, although thankfully not entirely. This segment, directed by Yi-Chen
Ko, fast forwards to the 1970s and focuses on a reticent, socially awkward
college student (Kuo-Hsiu Li) who yearns for the opportunity to prove himself
and who if he had his way would be a poet. I liked this segment’s focus on
individual dreams and concepts of filial piety, and it is clear that the
characters are still being torn between forging their own path in life and
following the road laid out for them by their families. I was also moved by the
lead character’s attempts to prove himself. Can he talk to the girl? Can he be
heroic? I suspect we’ve all had thoughts like these.
The final piece, directed by Yi Chang, moves viewers into
the bustling eighties, yet has very little to say about the time period itself.
It opts instead to be a comic exploration of a young, modern married couple on
the morning of the wife’s first day at a new job. The segment more closely
resembles a slapstick short from the 1920s than a serious reminiscence upon the
changes that were taking place in Taiwan in the early 1980s, and it is easily
the least consequential of all of the segments.
The film stays away from any overt mention of the politics
of these years. The only real mention of China occurs in the first segment,
when the family is given a radio and the father is frustrated that he cannot
get Chinese radio stations on it. Nothing is said about Chang Kai-shek or
martial law, yet its existence can still be felt in the nationalistic
undertones of the film’s third segment. Instead, the film focuses on more
personal issues – on family and how lasting their impact on their children can
be, on education and the results of a test-based approach to learning, and on
individuality and the changing nature of culture. Viewers of Taiwanese films
will not be surprised to learn that many of the film’s themes are expressed
indirectly and often non-verbally. This is not a film in which characters blurt
out, “Times are changing, Mom!” Rather, we hear the discordance in the film’s
soundtrack, through its early frequent cuts between jazz and classical music,
as if society were being pulled toward modernization and then tugged back to
the safe and the familiar. The use of the Beatles’ music in the second segment
demonstrates just which side won that war. We can also see this conflict in the
fashions people wear in the film, for as time goes by, they become less
traditional and more Western. In the third segment, we see for the first time a
woman with a tattoo, just another sign of society’s ever changing nature.
The film’s directors employ many of the techniques common
among films from the first wave of New Taiwanese cinema, which Wikipedia lists
as being from 1982, the year In Our Times
was released, to 1990. Its characters are, for the most part, realistic, and as
the film moves forward, it does so without much of a resolution in sight. In
fact, the film leaves viewers with many more questions than answers.
Nevertheless, it closes with an image of a society that is advancing and
somewhat hopeful, while at the same time resorting to tried and true notions of
rules and procedures in the hope that they will enable society to remain orderly
and stable. It’s an interesting end to an occasionally delightful film. (on DVD
and Blu-ray in Taiwan from Central Motion Pictures)
3 stars
*In Our Time is in
Taiwanese and Mandarin with English subtitles. The subtitles have occasional
inaccuracies.
No comments:
Post a Comment