Hsiao-hsien Hou

  • Hsiao-Hsien Hou – Nie yin niang AKA The Assassin (2015)

    2011-2020ArthouseHsiao-hsien HouMartial ArtsTaiwan

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    An assassin accepts a dangerous mission to kill a political leader in seventh-century China.

    J. Hoberman wrote:
    “The Assassin” is extraordinarily beautiful. The film’s editing and narrative construction are, however, no less remarkable. For all its exquisitely furnished interiors and fantastic landscapes, “The Assassin” is far too eccentric to ever seem picturesque. Nor does it unfold like a typical wuxia. Mayhem is abrupt, brief and fragmentary — predicated on suave jump-cuts and largely devoid of special effects.Read More »

  • Hsiao-Hsien Hou – Beiqíng chéngshì AKA A City of Sadness (1989)

    1981-1990ArthouseDramaHsiao-hsien HouTaiwan

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    Quote:
    A City Of Sadness opens with a credit sequence-shot of total darkness as the solemn voice of Emperor Hirohito is heard over a radio broadcast announcing the unconditional surrender of Japan on August 15, 1945. The setting is then faintly illuminated by the warm glow of candles to reveal an anxious Taiwanese household that is preparing for the imminent birth of a child in the midst of a power failure. As the electricity is restored, the audible agony of the expectant mother gives way to the sound of a crying infant. The apparent metaphor is then reinforced in the subsequent intertitles that reveal that the concubine of Lin Wen-heung (Chen Sown-yung) had given birth to a son whom they name Kang-ming, meaning ‘light.’ However, as the film chronicles the lives of the Lin family during the turbulent four years between the Japanese withdrawal from Taiwan after 51 years of occupation in 1945, to the secession of Taiwan from mainland China in 1949, the hopeful and optimistic tone of the film’s introductory sequence seemingly proves untenable.Read More »

  • Hsiao-Hsien Hou – Ni luo he nu er AKA Daughter of the Nile (1987)

    1981-1990CrimeDramaHsiao-hsien HouTaiwan

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    Synopsis:
    The eldest daughter of a broken and troubled family works to keep the family together and look after her younger siblings, who are slipping into a life of crime.Read More »

  • Hsiao-Hsien Hou – Zui hao de shi guang AKA Three Times (2005)

    2001-2010DramaHsiao-hsien HouRomanceTaiwan

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    Synopsis:
    Three stories about a man and a woman, all three using the same actors. Three years: 1966, 1911, 2005. Three varieties of love: unfulfilled, mercenary, meaningless.Read More »

  • Hsiao-Hsien Hou – Dong dong de jiàqi AKA A Summer at Grandpa’s (1984)

    1981-1990AsianDramaHsiao-hsien HouTaiwan

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    Synopsis wrote:
    A young boy and his sister spend a summer at their grandparents’ house in the country while their mother recuperates from an illness. They while away the hours climbing trees, swimming in a stream, searching for missing cattle, and coming to uneasy grips with the enigmatic and sometimes threatening realities of adult life.Read More »

  • Hsiao-Hsien Hou – Xi meng ren sheng AKA The Puppetmaster (1993)

    1991-2000ArthouseDramaHsiao-hsien HouTaiwan

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    In the first half of this century, young Li Tienlu joines a travelling puppet theatre and subsequently makes a career as one of Taiwan’s leading puppeteers. During World War II the Japanese rulers of Taiwan use the traditional Chinese puppet theatre for their war propaganda. Only after the war street theatres start playing agaiN.
    Read More »

  • Hsiao-hsien Hou – Qian Xi Man Po AKA Millenium Mambo (2001)

    2001-2010DramaHsiao-hsien HouTaiwan

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    Synopsis: Winner of the Grand Prix Technique at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival, Hou Hsiao Hsien’s MILLENNIUM MAMBO is a strikingly beautiful film set in Taipei’s hot nightclub scene. The remarkable Shu Qi stars as Vicky, a lost soul who hangs out… Winner of the Grand Prix Technique at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival, Hou Hsiao Hsien’s MILLENNIUM MAMBO is a strikingly beautiful film set in Taipei’s hot nightclub scene. The remarkable Shu Qi stars as Vicky, a lost soul who hangs out partying with her friends, smoking nonstop, and dancing and flirting. She lives with Hao-Hao (Tuan Chun-hao), but he doesn’t seem to excite her anymore, so she starts seeing an older gangster, Jack (Jack Kao), although the depth of the relationship is left purposely ambiguous.Read More »

  • Hsiao-hsien Hou – Nanguo Zaijan, Nanguo AKA Goodbye South, Goodbye (1996)

    1991-2000ArthouseDramaHsiao-hsien HouTaiwan

    Nick Schager (Lessons of Darkness) wrote:
    Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s first film set entirely in present-day Taiwan, Goodbye South, Goodbye concerns two low-level gangster brothers – easygoing Gao (Jack Kao) and impulsive Flathead (Giong Lim) – who, along with their girlfriends Pretzel (Annie Shizuka Inoh) and Ying (Kuei-Yin Hsu), navigate the rural outskirts of Taipei trying to earn enough money to open a restaurant. However, since the director is more interested in atmosphere and conveying a sense of time’s relentless progression than he is with straightforward narrative clarity, Goodbye South, Goodbye is more elliptical mood piece than traditional gangster flick. Gao and Flathead organize illegal card games, attempt to sell pigs at inflated prices, and engage in a variety of other misbegotten business ventures, all the while drinking, smoking, and coasting through life with the vague, imperceptive grogginess of men incapable of seeing the forest from the trees.Read More »

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