The Boys from Fengkuei

I've been interested in Hou Hsiao-hsien, the Taiwanese auteur, for quite a while. I saw his City of Sadness (1989) a few months ago and fell in love with it - I'm going to rewatch it soon. In any case, I wanted to get more familiar with his filmography and started with The Boys from Fengkuei (1983). Initially, the film is about a group of reckless youngsters who spend their days by drinking and fighting in a small town called Fengkuei. After a while, three of these guys decide to go to a bigger city to look for work. Gradually the film becomes the story of Ah-ching (one of the three) who has to face the problems the cruel reality brings up.

The film is a nice take on nostalgia and coming to terms with life. While it's not vastly insightful in its content, it is satisfying enough on its own. The film's beginning and ending are amazing and should be appreciated - the development of the characters becomes extremely obvious when the two are compared.

The form isnt very "Houesque" yet, but there are a few of his trademarks visible already. For one, he likes to revisit older compositions on a few occasions although it doesnt have an impact as big as, say, the hospital composition in his City of Sadness. The takes arent nearly as long as in his other films, and the framing is a bit rough. The erratic camera movement is a bit distracting at times, but luckily it isnt too bad in general. The weirdest aspect in the form was the musical score: Hou uses well-known Western classical music which either works somehow or not at all. For example, his use of Vivaldi's Winter was rather random and that piece of music always reminds of Oldboy, which didnt help at all.

In overall, The Boys from Fengkuei is a decent, likable film which suffers from notable flaws. It is a must-see for Hou fans.

Score: 6 out of 10