Three Times (Zui hao de shi guang) Critic Reviews

Another triumph of modesty from a master who deserves real, paying audiences, not just the adoration of besotted film critics.Read the full review

Three 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.Read the full review

Do Hou's films deserve to be seen? Absolutely, if only to end the myth that they're too perfect for this world.Read the full review

Finds Taiwanese master Hou Hsiao-hsien at his most intimate and romantic. The 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.Read the full review

Features minimal dialogue. It is mostly about mood and images, and it moves at a glacial pace.Read the full review

One of the best films of the year.Read the full review

Three Times offers a careful examination of the changing ways people have reacted to each other during the past 100 years. As such, it's an interesting essay but certainly a minor work from a master.Read the full review

Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien's hypnotically beautiful cinematic trilogy Three Times doesn't just illuminate faces and objects; it seems to fill them up, as if they were lighted from within.Read the full review

A sampler of novella-length films set in three different time periods and starring the same two actors, Hou Hsiao-hsien's Three Times resembles one of those delicate trios served at fine restaurants, each a fresh interpretation of a common ingredient.Read the full review