Three Times
Metascore
80 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 22 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 19 out of 22
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 22
  3. Negative: 0 out of 22
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  1. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    100
    Three varieties of love: unfulfilled, mercenary, meaningless. All photographed with such visual beauty that watching the movie is like holding your breath so the butterfly won’t stir.
  2. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Wilmington
    100
    Three Times is great cinema, pop romance that carries a special charge.
  3. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: G. Allen Johnson
    100
    One of the best films of the year.
  4. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Ken Fox
    100
    It's simply one of the most beautiful films he's (Hou Hsiao Hsien) made to date.
  5. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: Sean Axmaker
    100
    The style is pure Hou: richly textured atmosphere, tiptoeing camerawork and long, languorous takes of scenes full of privileged moments of human activity.
  6. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Jonathan Rosenbaum
    100
    Three Times, one of the peaks of his (Hou Hsiao-hsien) career, may be your last chance to see his work inside a movie theater.
  7. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Scott Foundas
    90
    I urge you to see the ineffably beautiful Three Times however you can, lest you go on thinking that Hou's greatness is merely the supposition of obscurantist critics intent on reserving their highest praise for those films that nobody else can actually see.
  8. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kevin Thomas
    90
    Finds Taiwanese master Hou Hsiao-hsien at his most intimate and romantic. The deceptive simplicity of these vignettes, written by Chu Tien-wen, throws into relief Hou's formidable storytelling strengths and visual acuity - his way with actors, his subtlety and expressiveness.
  9. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Marta Barber
    88
    Politics in Three Times is as subtle as the stories being told. The film is probably too slow, too silent and too long for most audiences. But look beyond the quietness, and you'll discover a three-gem jewel.
  10. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Wesley Morris
    88
    Another triumph of modesty from a master who deserves real, paying audiences, not just the adoration of besotted film critics.

User Reviews

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User Score
6.1 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 22 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 12
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 12
  3. Negative: 6 out of 12
  1. LinL
    1
    Rereading the critics' comments that initially led me to view this movie, I'm stunned. Though I watch a lot of foreign films and have a high tolerance for subtitles, subtext, and symbolic weirdness, I have to say this is the most boring film I've ever seen. A few nice visuals don't come close to making up for the clueless characters, scant dialogue, and the fact that virtually nothing happens in any of the vignettes. I've never felt such disconnect from the critics, including some of my favorites!… Full Review »
  2. janeT
    0
    In the 20 years that they've played at festivals, with almost no distribution in the U.S., the films of Taiwan's Hou Hsiao-hsien have evolved from a cult into a conspiracy: Here are movies, say the Hou faithful, so refined and subtle and poetic that the Man won't even let you see them. Three Times is the second Hou film to receive an American release, and as you watch its trio of linked stories, which feature the same two actors (Shu Qi and Chang Chen) romantically entangled in different periods and settings, you can see why his fans revere him … Full Review »
  3. HenryV.
    9
    An ambitious and practically transcendent piece of filmmaking. It's rare that a director has the intelligence to capture history so poetically, and it's flat out audacious for one to envision a future that is so bleak and hopeless.… Full Review »
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