A Time to Live, a Time to Die (1985)
"Tong nien wang shi" (original title)

This depiction of childhood and adolescence draws heavily from the filmmaker's own boyhood. Like many of their compatriots, Hou's family moved from the mainland to Taiwan in 1948 and was ... See full summary »

Directors:

Hsiao-hsien Hou, Jia-hua Lao,

Writers:

T'ien-wen Chu, Hsiao-hsien Hou

Stars:

Chia-bao Chang, Neng Chang, Chih-chen Chen

6 wins.

Cast

Credited cast:
Chia-bao Chang
Neng Chang
Chih-chen Chen
Han-wen Chen
Shu-fang Chen
Bao-te Chiang
Tung-hung Chou
Ai Hsiao
Shu-fen Hsin
Hsiang-ping Hu
Tung-lai Kao
Chung-wen Lin
Kuo-bao Liu
Cheng-ye Lo
Shun-lin Lo

Storyline

This depiction of childhood and adolescence draws heavily from the filmmaker's own boyhood. Like many of their compatriots, Hou's family moved from the mainland to Taiwan in 1948 and was unable ever to return. The film focuses on the widening generation gap in a family cut off from its cultural heritage.

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Plot Keywords:

coming of age | teen | historical event

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Genres:

Biography | Drama

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Details

Official Sites:

International Film Circuit

Country:

Taiwan

Language:

Mandarin Min Nan

Release Date:

1988 (USA)

Also Known As:

A Time to Live and a Time to Die

Filming Locations:

Taiwan

Company Credits

Production Co:

Central Motion Pictures Corporation, Yi Fu Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

138 min 138 min (Buenos Aires Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

This film is inspired by screenwriter-turned-director Hou Hsiao-Hsien's coming-of-age story. It is the second installment of Hou Hsiao-Hsien's "Coming-of-Age Trilogy" that features three prominent Taiwanese screenwriters' coming-of-age stories - the other two are _My Summer at Grandpa's (1984)_ (inspired by the childhood memories of Chu Tien-Wen) and _Dust in the Wind (1986)_ (inspired by the coming-of-age story of Wu Nien-Jen).

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Connections

Featured in Yang ± Yin: Gender in Chinese Cinema (1998)

User Reviews

A miraculous merging of personal and political

"A Time to Live and a Time to Die" reads like a family saga, but it is just as much a film about the passing of traditional China and the dislocation of exile. Of course the plot points are given away; Hou isn't interested in dramatic tension and Aristotelian unities--these are so dependent on Western ideas of

personality and the separation of individual and world that they make little

sense in China. He doesn't push the events in our faces, either--they just

happen, often in the middle distance with a tree in the foreground, the way real life happens. (Remember Auden's "Musee de Beaux Arts", with Icarus plunging

in the sea far off while a ploughman works on his field?)

The space Hou gives his events and his characters doesn't give us the intimacy with people that we expect in the West. But it gives us a rich sense of the

texture of life and the things that pass among members of a family and a

community, even one that is thrown together and can just as suddenly fall

apart, as it begins to here. It's that feeling for social space, in part, that allows this film and others of his to address social and historical questions without ever losing the sharp particularity of a personal story.