A Time to Live, a Time to Die
童年往事
1985 · Taiwan · 138 min · 1.85:1 · Color
Directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien
Introduction
A Time to Live, a Time to Die is a 1985 Taiwanese film directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien, produced by Central Pictures, with You An-shun as the teenage Ah-ha, Tang Ru-yun as his grandmother and Mei Fang as his mother. It draws on Hou's own upbringing and follows a family that moved from Guangdong to Taiwan in the late 1940s and settled in Fengshan, across more than a decade: the father dies of illness, the mother later falls ill and dies, the grandmother continues to believe she can walk back to the mainland, and Ah-ha passes from childhood into adolescence. The camera is mostly fixed and distant, significant events frequently occur deep in the frame or outside it, and there is very little score. The film received the Golden Horse Award for Best Original Screenplay and the FIPRESCI prize at Berlin.
Titles
- Mainland China
- 童年往事
- Hong Kong
- 童年往事
- Taiwan
- 童年往事
- English
- A Time to Live, a Time to Die
- Original
- 童年往事
Cast
- You An-shunas Ah-ha (teenage)
- Tang Ru-yunas Grandmother
- Mei Fangas Mother