The Best of Times 2002

Two cousins, Ah Wei Fan Wing and Ah Jie Kao Meng-Chieh, are teenage best friends whose personalities contrast yet pull them together through the rough edges of growing up. The film follows their drifting days in the suburbs of Taipei, where they share a home with their widowed fathers and a bustling mix of family members in a tight-knit Hakka village. The neighborhood, with its narrow alleys and colorful dialects, feels both ordinary and charged with possibility, a place where memory and longing can rearrange themselves into something almost magical.

In this world, the long alley toward the village’s edge becomes a secret passage to a surreal, dreamlike realm. As if by magic, the decaying surroundings are transformed into a fairy-tale stage where everyday objects—piglets, pigeons, and ducks—take on the guise of charming, otherworldly characters. The distinction between reality and fantasy blurs, and the boys’ imaginations take on the glow of possibility, offering a temporary escape from the pressures of adolescence and poverty.

Caught between the pull of this fantasy and the pull of the street, Ah Wei and Ah Jie drift toward the lure of Taipei’s underworld. The allure of money, danger, and the adrenaline of a lifestyle far removed from school and family tempt them to follow a path that could harden their hearts. Ah Wei, the more grounded of the pair, tries to keep their steps steady, but Ah Jie’s impulsive, reckless streak keeps pulling them toward risk and trouble. As Ah Wei rises from a nightclub parking valet to a debt collector in a local gang led by a big boss known as Brother Gu, he faces pressure to bring Ah Jie into the fold and make their partnership more dangerous than either imagined.

Meanwhile, Ah Wei’s older sister, Ah Min [Yu-chih Wu], is fighting a terminal battle with cancer. Her illness casts a long shadow over the family, shaping the mood and the stakes of everything around her. She ends a romantic relationship with Brother Tse [Yi-che Tseng] as she enters the final stages of her illness, choosing to return to a home she has tried to leave behind. Ah Wei becomes her caregiver in a way that blends brotherly protectiveness with the tenderness of someone who understands that time is running out. As they spend time together, Ah Wei shares his own youthful dreams and fantasies with Ah Min, taking her on small strolls through the neighborhood in her wheelchair and letting her voice guide his imagination.

Ah Min’s lingering questions about life and love reveal a bittersweet philosophy: she longs to be born again into the same family in a future life, a wish that lingers in the air as her health wanes. This sentiment deepens the bond between the siblings and casts a quieter, more poignant tone over the story, even as the brothers’ lives spiral toward disruption. The family drama intensifies the stakes for Ah Wei and Ah Jie, tying their personal adventures to the fragile life of Ah Min and the emotional currents that flow through a family facing loss.

As the life-and-death clock ticks, the handgun that the boys receive as a reward becomes a dangerous symbol of their reckless ambitions. Ah Jie’s quick temper worsens under pressure, and a terrifying accident—shooting the rival gang’s big boss during a debt collection—forces the two friends to scramble for safety. They flee their village and hide in Brother Tse’s home in Yilan, where Ah Wei notices a striking parallel: Brother Tse’s house also contains a tropical fish aquarium, a detail that echoes the one Ah Min gazed at back home. To Ah Wei, the aquarium seems to symbolize a tangible link to his sister’s love and to a romance he could never fully claim with Ah Min.

The search for safety drives them back toward their village, but the rival gang is still pursuing them. In the ensuing chase, Ah Jie is wounded, and as Ah Wei carries him through danger, the two boys collide with the muddy reality of their world: they dive into a gutter, the water turning suddenly clear like the aquarium that haunted their memories. In that moment, the two escapees float and swim as if venturing toward a new, unknown horizon—an “ocean” of possibilities that promises another chance at freedom and a different kind of adventure, away from the violence that has already marked their youth.

This film blends vivid childhood imagination with hard-edged urban peril, crafting a responsive, emotionally resonant portrait of two boys who grow up faster than they expect. It asks how far loyalty and love can carry you when the world around you pulls you toward danger, and it uses the motif of fish, water, and dreamlike transformations to remind us that even in the darkest times, a glimmer of wonder can steer a life back toward its true course. The result is a story that feels both rough around the edges and strangely lyrical, a rare look at how family, friendship, and fantasy intersect in a place where every alley could lead to a different destiny.