Hai tan de yi tian (1983)

Hai tan de yi tian: Directed by Edward Yang. With Sylvia Chang, Ming Hsu, Lieh Lee, David Mao. Two friends who haven’t seen each other for thirteen years reunite. One is a successful concert pianist just back from a European tour and the other has just started a new business.

“Edward Yangu0026#39;s early work is as powerful and inspiring as his later works and it deserves as much recognition and worldwide appreciation as A brighter summer Day(1991), Yi Yi(2000) etc.nA story of two school friends meeting and sharing their journey on how they became what they are and not just being centered around the two leads but also everyone they met during that time provides one of the best examples of character study in cinema.nIt might not be a Taxi driver or a Fight club but it doesnu0026#39;t fall behind those movies in any aspect. Everyone has their own struggles, they might not show it but they are struggling everyday to be what they are and have an identity of themselves.nAs the film progresses the story of the two female leads also develops, Yang carefully uses camera angles and colour tones help in setting the mood of the scene, the smooth and calm soundtrack also helps in conveying the mood of the situation.nYangu0026#39;s directing style of telling the story non-linearly and going back and forth various years even decades was a bold step yet rewarding and The hairstyle of the protagonist in every time-period helps the viewers keep track of the timeline easily.nItu0026#39;s a simple story that might happen to anyone of us yet it is powerful enough to keep us seated for its durtion on our seats and enjoy every new developments in the lives of the leads.nEdward Yang is no doubt the master of human emotions which is even evident from the fact that we as viewers too care less about what happened at the beach that day as Jia-li.”