The Time to Live and the Time to Die = Tong Nien Wang Shi

Taiwan, Province Of China, 1985

Film
Please note

Sorry, we aren't able to make images or video for this item available to the public online.

The Time to Live and the Time to Die is the story of a boy in the early 1950’s, baffled by all the grown-up’s talk of “home” on the mainland, unmoved by the portentous news stories that come over the radio; the story of a teenage delinquent in the early 1960s, thrown out of school, getting into fights with rival gangs, feeling the first stirring’s of sexual curiosity. It is Hou’s own voice that speaks the narration at the beginnings and end, confirming the intimacy and the candour of these memories. But this is also the story of a generation, the generation that fled from the hardships of China in the late 1940s, settled in the comparative prosperity of Taiwan and then found itself unable to return. It’s a story never before told on film, and certainly never visualised in such piercing and accurate detail. This has nothing to do with nostalgia. It is founded on a warm but clear-eyed sensitivity to the ways that people talk, think and behave. The result is one of the greatest Chinese films ever made.

Content notification

Our collection comprises over 40,000 moving image works, acquired and catalogued between the 1940s and early 2000s. As a result, some items may reflect outdated, offensive and possibly harmful views and opinions. ACMI is working to identify and redress such usages.

Learn more about our collection and our collection policy here. If you come across harmful content on our website that you would like to report, let us know.

How to watch

Stream, rent or buy via Just Watch Logo

Collection

In ACMI's collection

Credits

director

Xiaoxian Hou

production company

Central Motion Pictures Corporation

Duration

02:17:00:00

Production places
Taiwan, Province Of China
Production dates
1985

Collection metadata

ACMI Identifier

325120

Audience classification

MA

Sound/audio

Sound

Colour

Colour

Holdings

VHS; Access Print (Section 1)

Wikidata

Q697070

Please note: this archive is an ongoing body of work. Sometimes the credit information (director, year etc) isn’t available so these fields may be left blank; we are progressively filling these in with further research.

Cite this work on Wikipedia

If you would like to cite this item, please use the following template: {{cite web |url=https://acmi.net.au/works/81065--the-time-to-live-and-the-time-to-die-tong-nien-wang-shi/ |title=The Time to Live and the Time to Die = Tong Nien Wang Shi |author=Australian Centre for the Moving Image |access-date=29 March 2024 |publisher=Australian Centre for the Moving Image}}