The Wheel of Life

The rarely seen, newly remastered The Wheel of Life features the talents of three giants of Taiwan cinema: King Hu, Li Hsing, and Pai Ching-Jui. The three-part omnibus film traces the history of China and Taiwan across the ages, following three actors who appear as different characters embroiled in a love triangle that transcends time, braided together by a mysterious ancient dagger and the irrevocable tragedies it causes. Hu opens the film with a wuxia story of renegade swordsmen battling the secret police during the Ming dynasty; Li follows with the romantic melodrama of a wealthy man in love with an opera singer in the early 20th century; and Pai brings us to the 1980s with the story of a relationship between a dancer and a shaman. Curated by Pao-Chen Tang as part of the Film Studies Center's Graduate Student Curatorial Program.

(Taiwan, 1983, 105 min., HDCAM, courtesy of the Taiwan Film Institute)