| Director | Edward Yang |
|---|---|
| Runtime | 110 min |
| Country | People's Republic of China |
A shy taciturn young boy called Hsiao-mao (Little Cat) leads an unhappy life. At home, his parents neglect him, favoring his little brother and chiding him for playing with his dinosaur toys instead of studying. At school, he is ostracized by his classmates, who play pranks on him. When Hsiao-mao's parents receive a radio from a wealthier couple, the family starts visiting them for tea and to watch television. At the couple's home, Hsiao-mao draws a picture of his T-Rex figurine, but the couple's young daughter of a similar age takes it as hers. Returning home, Hsiao-mao dreams of himself playing jovially with dinosaurs, accompanied by apes playing instruments. One day during recess at school, Hsiao-mao stares at a popular girl at school as she walks towards and past him, a sight that causes further teasing from other students and him fighting with them. That afternoon, his father throws his T-Rex figurine away and they visit the couple's home again. This time, without his toy, Hsiao-mao has nothing to draw, but the girl proposes that they sneak out to the garbage dump to find the figurine. They manage to return home with the figurine without anyone's notice, and Hsiao-mao draws a picture of the girl's doll holding the figurine. That night, it is revealed that the couple and the girl are flying somewhere, and it is unclear when a reunion will happen again. The vignette is bookended by shots of a record player playing a record.
A teenage girl, Hsiao-fang embarks on a journey of self-discovery and navigates her budding romantic feelings for an older university student who is boarding with her family. One night, she inadvertently witnesses her sister being intimate with the male student. Through Yang's careful attention to detail and atmosphere, the film sensitively portrays the nuances of Hsiao-fang's emotional transformation. The film captures the intensity of her desires and the complexities of navigating sexual awakening within a family setting in the 1960s Taiwan. The film provides a glimpse into the societal characteristics of its era, reflecting factors such as industrialization, the influence of the Cold War, and the impact of American pop culture. Notably, the 1960s saw the widespread popularity of television and radio, which became media in the 1960s that connected people with the world. This period also witnessed the significant events such as the Vietnam War and the rise of the Beatles, along with the emergence of youth culture. Through its portrayal of these dynamics, "Expectation” stands as a testament to Edward Yang's exceptional ability to capture the subtleties of human emotions and relationships. Even at the early stages of his career, Yang skillfully drives the plot forward through a combination of visual and auditory elements. The choice of "Expectation" as the title of his directorial debut is a deliberate self-declaration, demonstrating his artistic vision and his intention to make a statement society.
Tu Shih-lien (nicknamed Fatty) is a male college student who owns a frog and is somewhat dissatisfied with life. He tries to liven things up by setting up an international student's club after his previous club collapsed and working as a weekend driver. One night, he takes dinner to a hung-over tenant, Ms. Chang, and quickly develops a crush on her. His father, a real estate company owner, wants him to transfer to major in architecture and inherit his position, but Fatty is only interested in philosophy and computer science. Meanwhile, other students cannot help him set up his activity so he vents his anger by swimming vigorously in a river during a downpour. Later, he confronts the student responsible for approving activities, who approves his club, on the condition that this time, the Chinese students will defeat the international students in a competition, which they lost the last time, and win back honor. On the day of the competition, both Fatty and a friend run for election to represent the Chinese students in a swimming competition, but Fatty's friend receives one more vote than him. While driving his friend to the competition site, Fatty's motorcycle crashes and Fatty's friend is injured. Though without mental preparation, Fatty agrees to participate in place of his friend in a competition that consists of one section of swimming, one section of running with a flag, one section of swimming, and a final section of running, with the first person planting the flag the winner. On the last stretch, Fatty trails behind an international student, but only then does the international student realize that he had inadvertently grabbed the wrong flag, and thus Fatty wins. As the students celebrate, Ms. Chang throws him a bouquet of flowers.
A young couple has just moved into a new apartment and the place is a mess, not to mention that a man with a constantly barking dog lives next door. After an argument, the wife leaves for her first day of work. The husband goes down to his mailbox to get his newspaper, but gets into an argument with a man who does not recognize the new resident and claims that the newspaper is his. Meanwhile, two kids going to school tell the boyfriend that they closed the door for him, and without a key, the husband is locked outside of his apartment. The husband approaches neighbors for help, but to no avail, and, with only a pair of underwear on and a towel around his waist, is forced to go out onto the street and call his girlfriend's company on a payphone, but cannot find her because the wife had arrived at the company but had left her company ID at home and is barred from entering. On her way home to get her ID, the wife gets stuck in traffic and decides to get out of her taxi and run home. The husband tries to scale an exterior wall to get into his apartment, but is mistaken by neighbors as a thief, including the dog owner, who hits him and causes him to fall to the ground.