Writer-director Hou Hsiao-hsien is regarded as one of the most important pioneers of Taiwanese cinema. His films are renowned for faithfully observing the minutiae of human behaviour. And his quiet, contemplative style influenced many younger Taiwanese filmmakers such as Ang Lee and Tsai Ming-liang.

His latest gem Three Times is composed of three parts, each starring Shu Qi and Chang Chen as the same couple who fall in love in three different periods of time. The first segment is set in 1966, where a soldier boy falls for a sexy girl in a pool hall. Reminiscent of Wong Kar Wai's mid-career films like As Tears Go By and Days of Being Wild, it is remarkably moving and evocative in its depiction of young love.

The second segment is set in a brothel in 1911, where a beautiful courtesan pines for a young activist who will never truly love her. Playing like a silent movie with intertitles, it portrays unrequited love in all its pained glory. Finally, the third segment is set in 2005, where a young rock star falls passionately in love with a bisexual photo-shop employee even though she already has a girlfriend.

Three Times explores what it means to be young and in love. Although these characters are distinctly separated by time and circumstance, their hearts often beat as one. Shu Qi and Chang Chen give strong performances, while Hou Hsiao-hsien guides us through the complex terrain of human emotions with a typically steady hand. Mainstream audiences might find this film frustratingly quiet and slow-paced, but art-cinema lovers will bask in its atmospheric glow.