"It is with Poussières dans le vent that I believe I have reached maturity. [...] I finally understood that when we film, whether it is a person or a thing, it emanates from what we film a feeling. My work as a filmmaker is simply to capture the feeling that emanates from what I film." HOU Hsiao-hsien
Yuan and A Yun grew up side by side in a small mountain village. One day, A Yuan decides to go to Taipei to find work and attend evening classes. A Yun joins him soon after. They gradually familiarize themselves with their new life in the capital, while returning from time to time to their native village. Their friendship turns noticeably into love until Yuan is called up for military service...
Directed in 1986, Dust in the Wind closes the so-called autobiographical cycle of Hou Hsiao-hsien, although this story is actually inspired by the youth of Wu Nien-jen, his co-screenwriter, seven years his junior. This new feature film can be seen as an extension of the previous one, A time to live, a time to die , insofar as it is another chronicle of late adolescence, now seen from the angle in love. As usual, Hou Hsiao-hsien makes his characters juggle between the countryside and the city. The latter acquires an almost romantic status, as in the great learning novels of the 19th century where the hero sees his life turned upside down in contact with the city. The train that drives the protagonists, the true leitmotif of the film, forms its spine since all the actions of the characters will be dictated by these comings and goings. The paths of the two heroes will never intersect, in a series of missed appointments. But this love story avoids any pathos: the emotion contained by the characters pours out on the environment. A masterpiece of purity, Dust in the Wind subtly and intelligently shows the transition from love to grief at the delicate age of adolescence.
DUST IN THE WIND
(1986 – Colors – 109 mins)
SUPPLEMENTS*
. PREFACE BY JEAN-MICHEL FRODON
. 2016 TRAILER "HOU HSIAO-HSIEN: 5 YOUTH WORKS"
* in HD on the Blu-ray version
Released November 8, 2017
Released at the cinema on August 3, 2016 in a restored version as part of the Hou Hsiao-hisen Retrospective - 5 early works
