This scene takes place in the 60’s, when Hou Hsiao-hsien was a young man, and which he holds with great nostalgic affection. This scene is the start of the film. Chen, a young man, is a regular at pool halls, where young women will often be available to join up with solo players. This is the first scene where he and May meet. Not knowing each other, their romantic encounter will be both timid and silent. Contrary to other scenes on the same subject there is no contact or speech between the two characters. Hou Hsiao-hsien’s filming style is based on a fundamental principal of Chinese art in that emotion isn’t expressed by the characters, but by the interval of space, or distance, that separates them. Going against the norms of western cinema, the camera doesn’t spend very long on the characters, instead, what lies at the centre of the camera’s attention is the journey of the ball across the baize. The cameraman’s mission was to move from the boy to the girl without settling on them. This is no easy task, as they also needed to follow the ball on its unforeseen path, keep it in focus and also provide a back and forth between the two characters. At the end of the sequence, despite everything, the boy and girl find themselves fairly close together in the same shot. The scene was shot in two extremely adept long takes, lasting exactly the length of time the game and the Platter’s Smoke Gets In Your Eyes, which plays in the melancholy distance.
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This scene takes place in the 60’s, when Hou Hsiao-hsien was a young man, and which he holds with great nostalgic affection. This scene is the start of the film. Chen, a young man, is a regular at pool halls, where young women will often be available to join up with solo players. This is the first scene where he and May meet. Not knowing each other, their romantic encounter will be both timid and silent. Contrary to other scenes on the same subject there is no contact or speech between the two characters. Hou Hsiao-hsien’s filming style is based on a fundamental principal of Chinese art in that emotion isn’t expressed by the characters, but by the interval of space, or distance, that separates them. Going against the norms of western cinema, the camera doesn’t spend very long on the characters, instead, what lies at the centre of the camera’s attention is the journey of the ball across the baize. The cameraman’s mission was to move from the boy to the girl without settling on them. This is no easy task, as they also needed to follow the ball on its unforeseen path, keep it in focus and also provide a back and forth between the two characters. At the end of the sequence, despite everything, the boy and girl find themselves fairly close together in the same shot. The scene was shot in two extremely adept long takes, lasting exactly the length of time the game and the Platter’s Smoke Gets In Your Eyes, which plays in the melancholy distance.