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For director Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Three Times seems to be replete
with nostalgia – not just for childhood, but, as critic Tang
Nuo (
唐諾
) once commented, for the perfect moments which
Hou’s fans have experienced themselves. As an admirer of
the filmmaker myself, I absolutely agree with this statement.
However, I must add that his choice of actors is also an
essential element in creating the perfect moments of Taiwanese
cinematic history. In this particular work, they were Shu Qi
and Chang Chen, the star of recent blockbuster The Assassin
and the director of ‘Inchworm’, one of three films featured in
Three Charmed Lives, respectively. As for the film’s screenwriter,
Chu Tien-wen, her name alone draws in the crowds. I have a
bad habit of not remembering the overall picture, but clinging
onto the tiniest trivial details. In Three Times, I recall the cue-
tip chalk sitting on the edge of the snooker table in the 1966
segment, the neck of the
pipa
played by the female entertainer
at a poetry and wine gathering in the 1911 story, and the
photos on the snow-white wall, along with that mouthful of
cigarette smoke, in the part set in 2005…
According to Chu’s notes, the love stories spanning three
lifetimes are about the pursuit of three different dreams: love,
freedom, and youth. All these are but fleeting moments – it
turns out that the real “perfect moments” are those that we
cannot return to. There is not much dialogue in the film, with
images and sounds highlighting the characteristics of each
era instead. Sounds of snooker balls colliding and the song
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes by The Platters is heard throughout ‘A
Time for Love’, ‘A Time for Freedom’ is drowned in the female
entertainer’s
pipa
melodies, while keyboard typing sounds are
featured prominently in ‘A Time for Youth’. This is Hou’s way of
“speaking”.
Although life in different time periods are depicted in the film’s
moving images, elements of history seem to be obscured by
romances which ultimately remain unfulfilled. When the silver
screen lights up and the smoke from an old film projector gets
in your eyes – that is what I call the perfect moment.
生命中許多吉光片羽，無從名之，難以歸類，也構成
不了什麼重要意義，但它們就是在我心中縈繞不去。
譬如年輕時候我愛敲桿，撞球間裡老放著歌〈Smoke
Gets in Your Eyes〉。如今我已快六十歲，這些東西在
那裡太久了，變成像是我欠的，必須償還，於是我只
有把它們拍出來。
我稱它們是，最好的時光。
以上，從朱天文的《劇照會說話》中抄錄下來，那時朱氏
還未寫《三十三年夢》，關於侯孝賢的一切話語顯得如絲
珍惜和雲淡風輕。《最好的時光》對侯導而言，看來是滿
載回憶的，那不止是童年回憶，也是評論人唐諾對侯導的
定位，他把侯氏的電影稱為屬於影迷的，最好的時光。這
句評語，作為侯粉的我是很同意的，但我必須加上另一句，
侯孝賢選用的演員，也是台灣電影史最好時光的一塊組件，
他們是舒淇和張震，前者近年化身《攝隱娘》，後者當起導
演，拍了《尺蠖》。而編劇朱天文，自然不用說，三三集團
三女子，無一不是時代的註腳。但我有個壞習慣，宏大的
事情記不清，無關緊要的細節倒是記得的，關於電影《最
好的時光》，我記得那 1966 年在球桌邊上不斷被拿起的磨
桿石，記得 1911 年大稻埕宅院開設詩酒會時藝妓的琴柄，
記得 2005 年純白牆壁上貼着的照片，以及那一口煙……
三生三世，情緣未了。翻開朱天文寫的電影本事，原來《最
好的時光》拍下了三個夢：戀愛夢、自由夢、青春夢，無
一不是轉瞬即逝的時光，原來「回不去了」才是真正最好
的時光。電影很少話，純然以影像和聲音來表現時代的特
色，戀愛夢都是撞球聲和The Platters 的歌〈煙迷你的眼〉，
自由夢淹沒在青樓藝妓的琴聲裡，而近年才開始被高舉的
青春夢，混雜在電腦打字的聲音裡。這是侯孝賢的說話方
式。時代就隱藏在這些光影之下：1966 年台灣放棄反攻大
陸計劃，戰爭氣氛緩和下來，但白色恐怖仍然繼續；1911
年梁啟超帶着女兒從日本來到基隆，留下不少詩文，鼓勵
了民族解放運動旗手林獻堂；2005 年，電影拍攝的當下，
台灣急速的現代化與城市化，與中國保持緊張的兩岸關係，
但鏡頭似乎 去了一些甚麼，掩去歷史的線索，傾一城於
戀愛，家國台灣，散落成戀戀台北，但有情人終沒能成眷
屬的，靖要離開了，城市不留人。
抬頭，銀幕亮起，趁老舊放映機捲膠片時逃逸的煙銷，跑
進你的眼裡，我將之稱為，最好的時光。
最好的時光是，跑進你眼裡的煙
The Perfect Moment: When Smoke Gets in Your Eyes
文：李薇婷
By Li Mei Ting