In Edward Yang’s film “Taipei Story” (1985), the eponymous metropolis is more than just a backdrop: it plays a central role. Yang captures Taipei during a period of significant upheaval. The economic boom of the 1980s is noticeably changing the face of the city. New skyscrapers with glass facades are springing up, neon signs from foreign corporations illuminate the streets, and the heavy traffic bears witness to the city’s advancing modernization. Against this urban backdrop unfolds the story of Lung and Chin, a couple who are increasingly losing their way in this new reality. While Chin, an ambitious assistant, embodies the city’s Western-oriented future, Lung, a former baseball player, clings to traditions and established values. Yang’s precisely composed images show empty, impersonal apartments and reflective windows in which people’s identities seem to blur. “Taipei Story” is a portrait of a city searching for direction amid its rapid progress, and a reflection on what happens when metropolises change faster than the people who live in them.