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With: Tien Feng, Mei Fang, Tang Ju-yun, Hsiao Ai, Yu An-shun, Wu Su-ying, Chen Shu-fang
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Written by: Hou Hsiao-hsien, Chu Tien-wen
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Directed by: Hou Hsiao-hsien
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MPAA Rating: Not Rated
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Language: Mandarin, with English subtitles
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Running Time: 138
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Date: 03/18/2013
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A Time to Live and a Time to Die (1985)
Time's Up
By Jeffrey M. Anderson Hou Hsiao-hsien's first great achievement is A Time to Live and a Time to Die (1985). It represents an intensely personal turn for the young artist, who, for the first time, committed to filmmaking as a career. It reminded me of Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets (1973), not because of its violence or cinematic invention, but in its acutely detailed look at its characters: a Taiwanese family exiled in China during the war, unable to return home. To put a point to it, the difference between this film and Hou's Flowers of Shanghai mirrors the difference between Mean Streets and Scorsese's The Age of Innocence (1993). By attending every film in this 2000 Hou retrospective, viewers can have a rare glimpse not only at Hou's work, but at his immense growth as an artist.
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