THROUGH FEBRUARY 16

While the films of Hong Kong are exuberant and eclectic, Taiwan’s young directors have developed a very different style: austere, stately, and intensely concerned with the tumult that gripped the island in the ’30s, ’40s, and ’50s. (This is particularly true of Taiwan’s most internationally acclaimed director, Hou Hsaio-hsien, whose haunted Good Men, Good Women opened the series last week.) This series features a more playful example of the style, Tsai Ming-liang’s Vive l’Amour (Feb. 16 at 6 p.m.), an arch, minimalist comedy about three disconnected Taipei residents that suggests both Chantal Akerman’s Night and Day and Michelangelo Antonioni’s L’Eclipse. Also included are Tropical Fish, the tale of a student who gets a chance to live out his video-game fantasies (pictured, Jan. 25 at 12:30 p.m.), The Peony Pavilion, in which a pop singer’s obsession echoes the plot of a Chinese opera (Jan. 25 at 3:30 p.m.), Lonely Hearts Club, a La Ronde-like web of romantic entanglements (Jan. 26 at 1 p.m.), Accidental Legend, a whimsical account of two children who turn to theft (Jan. 26 at 6 p.m.), Super Citizen Ko, in which a former political prisoner tries to adapt to freedom (Feb. 2 at 1 p.m.), Siao Yu, a tale of a green-card marriage between a recent Chinese immigrant and a ne’er-do-well American writer (Feb. 2 at 6 p.m.), and Heartbreak Island, another film about a former political prisoner confronting modern Taiwan (Feb. 9 at 6 p.m.). At the National Gallery of Art’s East Building Auditorium, 4th & Constitution Ave. NW. FREE. (202) 737-4215. (Mark Jenkins)