The Time to Live and the Time to Die, also known as A Time to Live, A Time to Die is a 1985 Taiwanese film directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien. This film is inspired by Hou's own experience of growing up in Fengshan, Kaohsiung city. It is the second part of Hou's coming-of-age trilogy, preceded by A Summer at Grandpa's (1984) and followed by Dust in the Wind (1986).

Plot

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 from the years of 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 to the home in China. The father died when Hou was still young. He grew up to become a rebellious high school student. While marks of tanks on the asphalt road indicated that Taiwan was in a state of war, it did not prevent Ah-ha from picking fights with other students or local gangs. He was defiant enough to even deflate his school teacher‘s bike tire and break the window of the veteran house. The death of his mother began to make him change. He fell in love with a girl from another high school, who told him she would only consider dating him after he was admitted to college, which prompted him to seriously prepare for the college entrance exam. A year later Ah-ha failed the exam. He blamed himself for neglecting to take good care of his grandmother, who died without being noticed by him and his two young brothers at home. The mortician found that half of her body was already in decay and gave them a scolding look 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.