The Time to Live and the Time to Die

The Time to Live and the Time to Die adopts Hou Hsiao-hsien’s own voice as the voice-over narrator to tell the story of the maturation of Ah-ha (阿孝; Hou’s nickname pronounced in Hakka), which spans the years 1947 to 1965. It begins with Hou recounting how his father, who was a public servant in the Nationalist government, brought his family to Taiwan to live in Hsinchu and then moved to the dormitory in Fengshan, Kaohsiung due to his ill health. 

Ah-ha’s grandma would always go out to call him back for dinner and sometimes take him with her to embark on the road to go back home to China, although this is physically impossible and confuses local residents. His sickly father dies when Hou is still young, leaving his mother to raise her young children single-handedly, recounting stories from her life such as how her eldest daughter died when she was an infant. Ah-ha grows up to become a rebellious high school student. While tank tracks on the local asphalt roads indicate that Taiwan is in a state of war, this does not prevent Ah-ha from picking fights with other students and local gangs. He is defiant enough to deflate his school teacher’s bike tire after a disagreement and break the window of a veteran’s house.

The death of Ah-ha’s mother from tongue cancer forces him to begin to change. He falls in love with a girl from another high school, who tells him she would only consider dating him after he is admitted to college, which prompts him to seriously prepare for the college entrance exam. A year later Ah-ha fails the exam. He blames himself for neglecting to take good care of his grandmother, who dies without being noticed by him or his two young brothers at home. The mortician finds that half of her body is already in decay and silently rebukes them for their lack of filial piety. The narrator ends the film by saying that he was often reminded of the road he walked with his grandmother to go back to China and the many guava they picked on the way home.

Last Updated: November 25, 2025 at 11:29