It’s painful to watch what Ting-Ting has to go through in this segment. During her first date with Fatty, Ting-Ting declared that if you’re nice to people, they’ll be nice to you in return. She’s a sheltered girl trying to step into a woman’s world, but she’s clearly not ready.

She sits in a concert with Fatty, watching him become enraptured of the cello player (who is Edward Yang’s wife, Kaili Peng, by the way. Yang sat at the piano pretending to play in this scene as well.) The implication is clear — this was a date he intended for Lili, and he’s missing Lili (and her cello) by transference. Ting-Ting knows this, which is why he’s distant and upset. Most conventional films would give us obvious clues of her jealousy — maybe some close ups and side eye glance. Yang refuses to break the spell — he lets his scenes play out the way we would observe them in life.

After the concert, Fatty tries to convince Ting-Ting that he has no feelings for Lily, only for her. This happens in an outdoor scene of great beauty, a long oner of the couple on a Taiwan street, cars passing like dancers, the whole scene captured by Yang on the street in multiple takes, trying to get the street traffic (which he made no effort to manage) just right. What he gets on screen is a magical movement of cars, punctuated with two taxi cabs stopped at a light, headlights pointed towards the two as they have their first kiss.

Again, Hollywood would end the date there, give Ting-Ting something beautiful to remember even if the rest falls apart. But Yang takes his young couple next to a most awkward place — a Taipei love hotel, where Fatty fumbles with the door key and then the strange lights system, Ting-Ting moving nervously inside the room, waiting for something to happen.

Once more I have to point out Ting-Ting’s courage in this scene. She’s clearly not ready for any of this, but she stays with it, letting her emotions push her towards something she can’t comprehend. Then Fatty starts to speak and declares it all wrong and does the one thing characters throughout this film do with ease — he runs away.

Ting-Ting sadly walks home alone, along the road instead of on the sidewalk. She ends the segment lying next to her grandmother, tears in her eyes, still a little girl, missing her dying grandmother, somehow left without her father and mother, placed at a distance from her best friend and now teased and left for a boy she’s fallen for.

The only solace we can take from this is the obvious truth — it all worked out for the best. At least Fatty figured out that he was still in love with Lily and faking it with Ting-Ting before he took her virginity. At least Ting-Ting got a reprieve from a first crush being taken too far.

And we hope for her that she retains that sweetness, where being good begets good, as she slowly discovers how painful and complicated adult life can be.