FESTIVAL ’90 : Screenings Present Pacific Rim Cultures

The Boys from Fengqui

Taiwan Sunday, 6 p.m., Laemmle Grande, 349 S. Figueroa St.

Hou Hsiao-hsien’s 1983 “Boys from Fengqui” takes place in a village and city, both of which are perched on the ocean. In it, a quartet of reckless, thoughtless boys, energetic bumpkins who imagine themselves street-wise, try to ride roughshod through life and keep bumping their noses. In a typical scene, they lose their cash to a swindler who sells them tickets to a “porno movie” supposedly screening in an empty building. (“Empty buildings are best,” he tells them sagely.) Romantically and dramatically, “Boys” is a complete reversal of the usual teen-age epic. Rather than glossing over the errors of youth, it mercilessly reveals them. And Hou’s mature style is already visible: the slightly elliptic narrative, hyper-real backgrounds, chilly tableaux and uniquely detached fight scenes.