Hou Hsiao-Hsien
More stories
-
BFI 59th London Film Festival – Top Picks for 2015
Next month sees the return of one of the UK’s most prolific film festival, The London Film Festival (LFF). Taking place between 7 and 18 October, the festival will show over 230 films in more than 16 venues over the capital. More
-
A new trailer for Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s ‘The Assassin’ has been released
Chinese filmmaker Hou Hsiao-Hsien has, over the course of his career, received accolades from numerous film festivals, including Locarno, Berlin, Venice, Chicago, Istanbul, and Singapore, while also being nominated for, among other things, the Independent Spirit awards. His latest film is no different in this regard, as it garnered the filmmaker a Best Director prize at […] More
-
Hou Hsien-Hsaio’s ‘The Assassin’ gets its first trailer
Chinese filmmaker Hou Hsien-Hsaio has risen to become one of the most critically acclaimed filmmakers on the international stage over the course of his career, winning awards for his work in Berlin, Locarno, Tokyo, Singapore, Chicago, and Venice. His appearances at the Cannes film festival have been no different, as he won the Jury Prize […] More
-
‘Dust in the Wind’ is a great starting point if you’ve never seen a Hou Hsiao-hsien film
If you have never seen a Hou Hsiao-hsien film, Dust in the Wind is the perfect starting point. Preceding the Taiwanese historical dramas he is best known for—City of Sadness (1989), The Puppetmaster (1993), Good Men, Good Women (1995)—Dust is the most assured work of Hou’s early career, and one of the best examples of Taiwanese New Wave Cinema. More
-
‘A City of Sadness’ is a landmark film in the Taiwanese New Wave
Hou Hsiao-Hsien made this film after directing nine features in Taiwan and was awarded the prestigious Golden Lion at the 1989 Venice Film Festival. A City of Sadness was written by two key screenwriters from the Taiwanese New Wave: Chu Tien-wen and Wu Nien-Ju, both of whom worked with Hou and Edward Yang (the other great director from this film movement) before and after A City of Sadness. The first film of a trilogy by Hou that would deal with Taiwan’s tragic past (followed by The Puppetmaster (1993) and Good Men, Good Women (1995)), A City of Sadness does the seemingly impossible task of distilling an unrepresentable experience into the fate of one family struggling to make sense of their situation following WWII. More
-
Learning Hou Part 2: ‘The Green, Green Grass of Home’
Having started with Goodbye South, Goodbye, we go backwards in Hou Hsiao-hsien’s career to one of his earliest films, The Green, Green Grass of Home. This particular film is the last in a trilogy of commercial-minded vehicles for pop star Kenny Bee that also included Cute Girl and Cheerful Wind. Bee got his start in Hong Kong as a part of a pop group called The Wynners and when that group split Bee made his way to Taiwan to make a go at acting. This won’t be the last time Hou works with a musician as an actor. Lim Giong was in multiple films including Goodbye South, Goodbye (for which he also did music for the soundtrack), and popstar Lin Yang made her debut in Daughter of the Nile, which I’ll be discussing in the future. More
-
Learning Hou Part 1: ‘Goodbye South, Goodbye’
Goodbye South, Goodbye Directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien Written by Chu T’ien-wen Taiwan, 1996 Up until now, I’d never seen a film by Hou Hsiao-hsien, who is considered a true master of the cinematic arts. Despite his critical notoriety, Hou is not well-known in the United States where he has received frustratingly little distribution. Jonathan […] More
-
They Shot Pictures Episode #07: Hou Hsiao-hsien
In this episode of They Shot Pictures, I am joined by my friends, Sean Gilman (@theendofcinema) and Lance McCallion (@LanceJMc) to talk about a much beloved Taiwanese filmmaker, Hou Hsiao-hsien. We start with his 1984 film, A Summer at Grandpa’s, move on to 1995’s Good Men, Good Women and conclude with a discussion of Millennium […] More