In Our Time (Guang yin de gu shi) (NR)

synopsis

The Taiwanese new wave - a flm movement featuring earthiness and restrained realism as having had a lasting impact on the world's movies - began modestly with this installment from 1982, which contains four episodes set in di?erent decades. Though neither the long takes nor the unconventional narrative structures that would become the new wave's stylistic innovations are present here, it is remarkable how well-developed this movement's major themes were at the outset embodied here: rural life, loneliness, and childhood are all explored in the frst two episodes, directed by Tao Te-chen and a thenunknown Edward Yang, while Ko Yicheng and Chang Yi's broadly comic third and fourth episodes tackle urban life and the perils of young adulthood.