Darkness and Light (黑暗之光), Jump! Boys (翻滾吧!男孩) & Three Times (最好的時光)

Darkness and Light (黑暗之光), Jump! Boys (翻滾吧!男孩) & Three Times (最好的時光)

Sunday, April 22, 2007 - 12:00pm to 1:30pm
Auditorium (Room 101), Henry R. Luce Hall See map
34 Hillhouse Avenue
New Haven, CT 6511

Free and open to the public. All films will be screened in DVD format in Chinese with English subtitles.

Darkness and Light (黑暗之光)
Directed by Chang Tso-chi (張作驥) , 1999, 104 minutes

Taiwanese filmmaker Chang Tso-chi directed this restrained melodrama about a young girl’s love and loss in the northern city of Keelung. Kang-yi is a beautiful, precocious teenager whose brother is mentally challenged and whose father and aunt are blind. With her help as guide and caregiver, her father runs a successful business as a masseur. In spite of her numerous responsibilities, Kang-yi develops a crush on a gangster’s handsome godson, Ah Ping, who just moved into her building. The aggressively flirtatious Kang-yi pursues the initially reluctant boy, until eventually they fall in love. Unfortunately she has already been “claimed” by a former steady with connections to a rival mob syndicate. Soon what should have been a mere youthful dalliance suddenly turns into an escalating gang war. By the end of the film, the formerly vivacious Kang-yi feels the weight of her responsibilities, while longing with all her heart for the return of those she loved the most. Chang served as assistant director to Hou Hsiao Hsien, whose carefully modulated style clearly influenced this film. Chang employs long takes, a static camera, and cutting on an axis to create a contemplative, touching portrait of a young woman’s loss of innocence. This film was screened in the 1999 Toronto Film Festival.

Special thanks to the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York for providing the DVD for this screening.

Jump! Boys (翻滾吧!男孩)
Directed by Lin Yu-hsien (林育賢) , 2005, 85 minutes

Several little boys from different families have totally different characteristics and tempers. They don’t play computer games or go to the McDonald’s. Instead, they go straight to the gymnasium after school, which is about the only thing they have in common. The training is painstaking, yet they never quit. Jump! Boys is not a traditional or critical documentary film, as it portrays its story in a humorous and cheerful manner. The coach has to act like both a tough father and a loving mother to his students. From the coach’s own experiences with gymnastics, the audience can gain an understanding of Taiwan’s physical education environment as well. (2004 “Excellent Film” of “Golden Grain Award”; 2004 “Best Documentary Film” of “South Taiwan Film & Video Festival”; 2004 Nominated “Taiwan International Documentary Festival”; 2004 Nominated in “Guangzhou International Documentary Festival”)

This film was provided as part of the “Window on Taiwan” documentary series from the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York.

Three Times (最好的時光)
Directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien (侯孝賢) , 2005, 139 minutes

Director Hou Hsiao-Hsien unites three intimate love stories over three different time periods in the sensual triptych Three Times. Nominated for a Palme d’Or at the 58th Cannes International Film Festival in 2005, this beautifully shot film is intelligently scripted and features exceptional performances from a stunning young cast.

A Time For Love: A languid, lusty love tale set in Kaohsiung in 1966. Young army soldier Chen meets the stunning May when he goes to play pool at his favorite pool hall. Infatuated with the pool hall dame, Chen returns to visit May only to find out she no longer works there and is no where to be found.

A Time For Freedom: Adopting the style of a silent film, this is a gentle tale of love set in Dadaocheng in 1911. When a beautiful young courtesan Ah Mei falls pregnant to one of her clients, his family must negotiate a deal to buy out the remainder of her contract as a courtesan. With the generous help of a fellow client Mr. Chang Ah Mei is free to go and live with the father of her unborn child.

A Time For Youth: A moody, contemporary tale of love set in 2005 Taipei. Jing, an epileptic rock singer, is having an affair with cute photographer Zhen, despite having a jealous lesbian lover named Mickey. When Mickey finds out about the affair, Jing’s decision to turn her back on their relationship has grim consequences for all parties involved.

Special thanks to the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York for providing the DVD for this screening.

Special thanks to the Council for Cultural Affairs, Taiwan for their support of this program.

This film series is part of the special events planned around the upcoming international conference TAIWAN AND ITS CONTEXTS.

For More Information

Co-sponsored by the Council on East Asian Studies at Yale University, the Yale Taiwan Student Association, and the Taipei Economic and Trade Office in New York
Region: 
China, Hong Kong, Taiwan