Edward Yang shows off his gift for scene-to-scene transitions in this segment of the film, which also happens to be about major life transitions for three of the main characters in the film.

We begin with Yang-Yang finally putting his water balloon plan into place. We see him walking quickly and with authority — two larger classmates trailing behind him — to the spot where they will drop the water bomb. A student passes Yang-Yang and asks “aren’t you skipping AV class,” to which he responds “buzz off.”

We see “the concubine” walking towards them on the sidewalk, and the two older boys get the water balloon into place. But she walks by too fast and the balloon instead explodes on the teacher, who furiously tells them not to run away.

Of course they do, and Yang-Yang happens to find his way back to AV Class, where they are watching a movie about storms and lightening. Yang-Yang is standing in the back, when we see “the concubine” walk into the darkened room also. She very briefly gets her skirt caught in the door, giving Yang-Yang a brief glimpse of her underwear. This moment of vulnerability touches off something inside him.

What comes next needs to be experienced visually, no description will do it justice. Here’s a link to the clip on YouTube.

Yang-Yang’s sexuality has just been awoken, a major transition. The film now holds onto this weather theme and turns to Ting-Ting, walking in a rainy Taipei afternoon with her umbrella. She sees Lily’s boyfriend once again outside of their apartment building, once again holding an envelope.

But this time Ting-Ting is not so compliant with others’ wishes. She lays into him — telling him that he won’t allow them to fight this way, then blaming him for the trouble he’s having with Lily, saying “how can you do that, Lily is so lovely.” He then asks if Lily is seeing other boys and Ting-Ting doesn’t really answer, she says “I didn’t say that.”

A couple walks past them, the woman looks at Ting-Ting and says “tough lady.” This seems to trigger something in Ting-Ting, maybe she’s being too harsh. The next thing we see is the two of them getting tea together — again viewed through a window on the street, keeping a discreet distance from their conversation. We see that the boy has his head down in despair — maybe Ting-Ting has told him the truth. She has apparently paid the bill.

Next transition: back at the apartment. We see umbrellas outside of doors, continuing the weather theme, but then we see Lily in the door with her huge cello and an umbrella. We hear her say “how could you do this?” and wonder if she somehow knew of the tea room conversation we never heard.

But she goes into the apartment — the cello crashes to the ground as she goes — and we hear the ruckus inside. The fight has nothing to do with Ting-Ting, it’s about Lily’s mother, who has brought yet another strange man home — this time, Lily’s english teacher. Lily is furious, threatening to tell the principal about it. The teacher pathetically tries to explain himself with lines like “teachers have needs too.”

Ting-Ting, who desperately wanted to be pulled into the drama swirling around her, is now enmeshed in it. She’s in Lily’s boyfriend problems and now she’s witness to the Jiang’s family drama. The teacher closes the door on Ting-Ting, but right before he does, we hear Lily scream from inside the house.

This sound transitions to the sound of a baby crying. A-Di’s son has been born and he’s at the hospital nursery getting shots of his boy on a videocamera. He seems to be overjoyed with seeing his son’s first facial gestures.

But in a flash, A-Di switches to despair. He’s now in the hospital room showing the video to his wife. She’s confused at first why he’s suddenly crying. She then figures out that it has to do with the boy’s horoscope, which is apparently unfavorable. A-Di, who lives in this constant rapid flux of good and bad luck, momentarily thinks that he’s cursed, even as he’s experiencing some of the best fortune of his life.

His wife reminds him that they can give him a lucky name to balance out the luck. This seems to calm him a bit.

A-Di is facing the biggest transition of all in the Jian family, becoming a father, but he seems more determined than anyone to hold onto the patterns and behavior that got him to this point in life. At least for now.