SYNOPSIS

In Our Time is a film consisting of four films by four different directors (Eduard Yang, Yi Chang, I-Chen Ko and Te-Chen Tao). The first segment, Little Dragon Head, was directed by Tao De Chen, and concentrated on a young boy who was picked on by his parents and his classmates. His only friend is a plastic dinosaur. One can't help but feel sorry for the boy as people and events continually conspire against him.

The second segment, Expectation, was directed by the then unknown Edward Yang. It appears that his interest in telling women's stories was present from the very beginning. The main protagonist in this tale is a young adolescent girl, who lives with her older sister and widowed mother.

The third segment, by Ko I-Cheng (Ke Yizheng), takes place in college. The main character is a lively fellow, called 'Fatty' in jest, who spends his time exercising and working as a driver for women who have use of their husbands' cars, but cannot drive. Like the protagonists of the earlier tales, he too seems caught between hopes and dreams.

The last segment, by Zhang Yi, was also the shortest. Say Your Name is an amusing comedy about a young couple who have just moved into a new apartment in Taipei. Their neighbours seem to assume that anyone they don't know must be a thief, which makes things even more complicated.

There is a definite progression through the four films, in time (from the fifties to the eighties) and in the age of the protagonists (from early primary school to young, working adults). Though the four stories were essentially short films, characterisation was achieved quite well in all of them, at least for the main characters. Definetly, taken as a whole, In Our Time announces the ambition of the New Taiwan Cinema: to eschew studio-bound escapism and melodrama in favor of a hard-hitting cinema grounded in everyday life.

TECHNICAL DATA

Director: Eduard Yang, Yi Chang, I-Chen Ko and Te-Chen Tao
Script: Eduard Yang, Yi Chang, I-Chen Ko and Te-Chen Tao
Producer: Ming Chi
Cast: Sylvia Chang, Sheng-Wen Lan, Lichun Lee, Kuo-Hsiu Li and An-ni Shih
Editors: Ching-Song Liao
Cinematography: Chen Jiamo
Music: Luo Dayou
Runtime: 106 min. Color. Language: Mandarin. Subtitles: Spanish.