Dust in the Wind

1987 love story

Rating: 16/20

Plot: Film adaptation of that Kansas song.

No, it's not a film adaptation of that Kansas song.

What a lovely opening shot this has, everything dark but for the approaching end of a tunnel. Our lovers are on a train. We catch them mid-journey and, as it turns out, mid-relationship. Maybe it's the windblown dust in the title, but I figured this would not end happily ever after, but just like in real life, there's something beautiful about tragedy, too. This has the rhythm of a poem you found scribbled on yellowed paper in your attic.

I don't know much about Hou Hsiao-hsien, and I think I've only seen one of his other films--The Assassin from a few years ago. I'm not surprised by the visuals here or the patience with the storytelling. His skill is in taking mundane moments and making them powerful, forcing the audience to take an interest in every little thing that happens whether it seems interesting or not.

There's a lot of references to movies in this--probably even with that opener, which visually looks like a slow-motion reverse of the end of a Looney Tunes cartoon where the darkness envelopes the screen except for a shrinking circle. You know what I'm talking about? No? I probably don't either.