相對於侯孝賢新電影時期的作品與台灣三部曲，地點設定在當代台灣的電影，如《尼羅河女兒》（1987）、《南國再見，南國》（1996）與《千禧曼波》（2001）較少受到學者的關注。侯孝賢也自承作為一個「老靈魂」與現代年輕人還是有些隔閡，因此無法準確抓住應有的現代感。而縱觀這些作品，相同的是侯孝賢呈現的末世圖像，以及延續自早期對時間的關注。本文一方面檢視侯孝賢電影所再現的沒有救贖的末世台北／台灣圖像，一方面關注不斷出現的時間子題所流露的時間意識，耙梳從《尼羅河女兒》到《最好的時光》中的〈青春夢〉此一設定在侯孝賢同時代的電影譜系。《尼羅河女兒》延續定鏡長拍、固定鏡位與中遠景鏡頭，以女性的旁觀視角，凝視幫派分子在奮力一搏卻又必然失敗的命運，展演出人事興衰的命定悲劇。《南國再見，南國》中的城鄉不再對立，而是交織成一條條的公路；在時間不斷流逝下，角色被社會力驅使著不斷上路卻又苦無出路。進入《千禧曼波》與〈青春夢〉，新世紀的年輕人耽溺在當下的感官刺激與商品消費，似乎只能活在永恆重複的現時此刻。唯有日本夕張提供一種不同的時間意識：不斷流逝的時間，再次引發觀眾滄海桑田、寶變為石的抒情氛圍。

Compared with his early work, Hou Hsiao-hsien's films, including The Daughter of the Nile (1987), Goodbye South, Goodbye (1996) and Millennium Mambo (2001) have drawn little critical attention except for harsh criticism and negative responses. Even Hou acknowledges the generational gap between himself and the contemporanian youth and admits his inablility to explore contemporary culture and society in depth. Ironically, after travelling to Yubari in Japan, Hou senses a kind of temporality that has been lost in Taiwan. This article delineates the geneology of Hou's films set in contemporary Taiwan in terms of their apocalyptic imagination and temporalities. The Daughter of the Nile inherits the bystander's point of view from Hou's previous films through which the audience reflect and lament the ups and downs of a group of gangsters struggling in the city. As an atypical road film, Goodbye South, Goodbye interweaves the images of the country and the city, putting its main characters restlessly on the road. Altough always on the move, these characters find no way out as if trapped in the island of Taiwan. Millennium Mambo and ＂A Time for Youth＂ in Three Times both present a postmodern vignette in which the youth only live at the moment of the present as if there were neither the future nor the past. In contrast, Yubari in Japan provides a sense of time passage and revives Hou's lyricism that used to permeate his films set in the past and the countryside.