Grant Gadbois There are great aspects of Three Times, but overall the film falls short of entertaining. The camerawork is quite lovely, especially the long takes, as it gives the piece a very special rhythm. The characterization is meaningful yet shallow in all three stories, which makes it hard to connect thoroughly with the characters. The first story is fantastically charming, but the second is beautifully dull, and the third failed to bring this viewer back into the picture. Three Times is an art piece, and should be viewed as such. The majority of modern movie-goers would not enjoy this film, but it does have merit, and this reviewer can most accurately described it as an experiment in cinema.

Vishwas Verma Nominated for Palme d'Or at Cannes Film Festival in 2005, Hsiao-hsien Hou's Three Times is a moody exploration of love, freedom and youth. The movie unfolds in three separate stories which take place in three different time zones over a century in Taiwan, with the main roles in each story played by same two actors – Qi Shu and Chen Chang.In the first story – A Time for Love – set in 1966, Chen meets May in a bar while playing pool. They stay in touch when he joins the army, but when he comes back May doesn't work in the same bar anymore. So he seeks her to different places. In the second – A Time for Freedom – set in 1911, Mr. Chang is frequent visitor to a brothel where he keeps interacting with a singer. When he frees one of the other girls by providing financial help, the singer asks if he would help her too. The last story – A Time for Youth – set in 2005, shows a relationship of girl with a photographer and a bisexual singer.This is one movie where actually "nothing happens". There are long shots without any dialogue at all, camera just pondering on characters when they do trite stuff, where everything depends on whether you will get sucked into the day to day lives of these people. But even then when you find yourself hooked to the screen, and admire each shot for its perfection and at the same time you connect with the characters all of them being from radically different eras.The music plays a huge part in the movie and sets the gloomy mood of the movie throughout – especially in the second and third stories. In fact, in the second story, there is no spoken dialogue at all. Though you can see people speaking, all you hear is a long musical piece in the background, and you get to see what is spoken written on the screen like in a silent movie. The first story is played on the background of two soulful songs – Smoke Gets in Your Eyes by The Platters and Rain and Tears by Aphrodite's Child. I became an instant fan of these two songs. I would love to go back to watch this movie again just to listen to these songs with great visuals and atmosphere of love and longing.Qi Shu gives electrifying performances as May in the first story, the singer in the second, and as the girl torn between the loves of his boyfriend and a girl. Chen Chang is also brilliant – particularly in the first and last story. The best part of the movie is the direction, where Hou keeps you riveted for nearly two hours without much of any story. Overall, this is one of the best movies I have seen in recent which I would love to watch again and again.http://vishwas8317.blogspot.in/2012/12/threetimes.html

Claudio Carvalho (1) "A Time for Love": In 1966, in Kaohsiung, Chen (Chen Chang) meets May (Qi Shu) playing pool in a bar when he is joining the army. He sends letters to her and he comes to the bar to meet her again in his leave. However, May had traveled to another place and Chen seeks her out. (2) "A Time for Freedom": In 1911, in Dadaochend, the writer Mr. Chang (Chen Chang ) works for Mr. Liang and frequently travels to a brothel, where he meets the singer (Qi Shu). He financially helps the courtesan Ah Mei (Shi-Zheng Chen) to become a concubine. When the singer asks him if he would help her to leave the brothel, there is no answer.(3) "A Time for Youth": In 2005, in Taipei, the messy relationship of the photographer Zhen (Chen Chang), his girlfriend Jing (Qi Shu) and a lesbian singer."Three Times" is a pretentious and overrated film with three (boring) short stories of love and communication. I will not extend any additional comment since there is not much to say. My vote is four.Title (Brazil): Not Available

Chad Shiira Not known for big emotional payoffs, this internationally-acclaimed, but audience polarizing filmmaker, better known for modulation than sensation, in "A Time for Love", the first of three stories from "Zui hao de shi guang", atypically gives the people what they want: a reason to cry, and an occasion to nod in recognition. This cerebral, often clinical Taiwanese director, has made the unthinkable...a crowd-pleaser; it's the closest he'll ever get to mainstream filmmaker. "A Time for Love" contains a scene every bit as iconic as the moment Lloyd Dobler(John Cusack) holds his boom-box towards Diana Court's window, as Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes" dovetails with the night air like a prayer, in Cameron Crowe's "Say Anything". The genesis of the momentous instant when two hands, isolated from their star-crossed owners, find each other and clasp together like nervous magnets, begins in earnest, in a billiards room, where the same man and woman will meet three times across different generations. This is the second time; the year is 1966. At a train station, a man and woman share an umbrella; they're too late to catch a train, but right on time for love. It's raining.In "Lexus and Butters", an episode of Season 6 of Trey Parker and Matt Stone's "South Park", Cartman and the gang visit the local Hooters where Butters falls under the spell of a Hooters waitress. Failing to understand that Lexus entertains men for a living, he pursuses her, confusing the girl's professional flirting with love. Butter's plight is Chen's plight as well, in "Zui hao de shi guang", a soldier, who writes a letter to the pool girl, describing his time with her as a happy experience. In the scene, we see the aftermath of his mistake; we see the slight curl in the girl's lip before she folds the letter away. The girl leaves. May(Qi Shu) is her replacement. During a long, drawn-out scene, Chen(Chen Chang) and the pool girl shoot a game, in which the long take allows the viewer to see how chemistry works, how mutual ground can unfold into elevation. They're largely silent, but it's a comfortable silence, interjected with Chen's apprehensive incursions about this sinuous girl holding a stick. It looks like a date, but the spontaneity of actualization is dashed by a feminine arm that appears suddenly in frame under Chen, cigarette in mouth, lining up his shot, to lay down an ashtray. It's May's job to smile. He pays her. But in an earlier scene, May found the letter he wrote to the other pool girl, setting up the possibility that she takes pleasure in entertaining the soldier. She's no Lexus; he's no Butters.Like the late Johnny Cash, Chen has "been everywhere" too, man; instead of "Reno, Chicago, Fargo, Minnesota, Toronto...," Chen has been to Gangshen, Jiayi, Shuishang, Xinying...," looking for May. The town names may be Chinese, but the music in "A Time for Love" is conspicuously American, when it matters. The filmmaker uses The Platters' "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" and Aphrodite Child's "Rain and Tears" to convey romance, seemingly, in a way that western audiences can understand. When Cheng finds May in a Huwei pool hall, the girl reacts with such obvious delight, the audience can now differentiate May's professional smile from her genuine one. Unusual for this filmmaker, the following scene at a noodle cafe, is brief, succinct, and to-the-point: May looks at Cheng, waiting for the soldier to make the next move. The two American songs have the effect of explaining the American length of the scene, even though it carries the filmmaker's trademark of a fixed camera and no dialogue. And that next move; it's not an overture for intimacy, or even a kiss, it's the simple desire to hold a girl's hand. While "A Time for Freedom"(for people who liked "Hai Shang Hua") and "A Time for Youth(for people who could tolerate "Qian xi man po") have its strong points, "A Time for Love" is an unqualified success.