From All Movie Guide: Director Hou Hsiao Hsien, in a 1988 New York Film Festival World Critics Poll, was voted one of three directors who would most likely shape cinema in the coming decades. He has since become one of the most respected, influential directors working in cinema today. In spite of his international renown, his films have focused exclusively on his native Taiwan, offering finely textured human dramas that deal with the subtleties of family relationships against the backdrop of the island’s turbulent, often bloody history. All of his movies deal in some manner with questions of personal and national identity, particularly, “What does it mean to be Taiwanese?” In a country that has been colonized first by the Japanese and then by Chiang Kai-Shek’s repressive Nationalist Government, this question is pregnant with political connotations.
Hou was born to a member of the Hakka ethnic minority in southern Guangdong province in mainland China, but his parents emigrated to Kaohsiung, Taiwan, in 1949, to escape the bloodshed of the Chinese civil war. After serving in the military, Hou entered the film program at the National Taiwan College of the Arts. He graduated in 1972 and worked as a salesman until he landed a job as an assistant director and a screenwriter. In 1980, he made his directorial debut with Cute Girl, but he did not attract critical attention until The Son’s Big Doll appeared as an episode of the omnibus film Sandwich Man (1983). This film, along with another portmanteau movie, In Our Time(1982), is considered one of the first films of the New Taiwan Cinema movement, which injected a new level of sophistication and vitality into a moribund film industry previously known for martial arts spectaculars; it arose from the Foundation for the Development of Motion Picture Industry and the loosening of censorship laws in the late ’70s and was led by such young filmmakers as Hou and Edward Yang.
Hou’s work centers on two recurring themes, the social upheaval and erosion of traditional family ties resulting from Taiwan’s rapid urbanization in the 1960s and 1970s and the representation of Taiwan as a multicultural, multilingual society, a view that intentionally differed from the government’s enforcement of Mandarin as the official tongue. For example, Dust in the Wind (1986) follows the lives of two country innocents who move to Taipei, and Daughter of the Nile (1987) tells of a displaced family torn apart by the pressures of the city. Characters in Hou’s films, more often than not, speak Taiwanese, Hakka, Fukienese, or even Japanese, as opposed to the state-sanctioned language, as seen in his autobiographical A Time to Live, a Time to Die (1985) and in City of Sadness (1989). Stylistically, Hou has been compared to Japanese filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu. Both directors favor a minimalist approach that downplays overt melodrama, focusing instead on the quiet nuances of human emotion. Both employ long static shots and low camera angles. But unlike Ozu, Hou’s films challenge the viewer in their use of episodic plot lines, complex juxtapositions, and off-scene space.
In 1989, Hou overcame government censors to create his masterpiece, City of Sadness, the first film to confront the so-called Incident of February 28, 1947, a Tianamen Square-style massacre of native Taiwanese committed by government troops. Well-received domestically, the film was acclaimed by international critics and won the first Golden Lion awarded to a Chinese film at the Venice Film Festival. For his next film, the second in his Taiwan trilogy, Hou continued to investigate Taiwanese history in the semi-documentary Puppet Master (1993), which focused on Japan’s occupation of Taiwan as seen through the eyes of puppet artist Li Tien-Lu. The final film in the trilogy, Good Men, Good Women (1995), about a political prisoner released in 1987 who finds modern Taiwan cold and alienating, has often been cited as one of the finest films of the 1990s. Such subsequent films as Goodbye, South, Goodbye (1996) and Flowers of Shanghai (1998) have also been critically lauded but have failed to find an audience at home. Apart from directing, Hou also served as production manager for the landmark mainland Chinese film Raise the Red Lantern (1991) and acted in Edward Yang’s Taipei Story (1985). In 1997, French director Olivier Assayas directed a documentary about Hou entitled HHH: Portrait of Hou Hsiao Hsien. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
Filmography
Director:
Chacun son cinéma ou Ce petit coup au coeur quand la lumière s’éteint et que le film commence (2007) (segment “The Electric Princess House”)
… aka Chacun son cinéma (France: short title)
… aka To Each His Cinema (International: English title)
Voyage du ballon rouge, Le (2007)
… aka Flight of the Red Balloon (International: English title)
Zui hao de shi guang (2005)
… aka Three Times (International: English title)
Kôhî jikô (2003)
… aka Café Lumière (International: English title) (USA)
Qianxi manbo (2001)
… aka Millennium Mambo (France) (USA)
海上花 (1998)
… aka Flowers of Shanghai
南国再见 (1996)
… aka Goodbye South, Goodbye
好男好女 (1995)
… aka Good Men, Good Women
Hsimeng jensheng (1993)
… aka In the Hands of a Puppet Master (International: English title)
… aka The Puppetmaster
悲情城市 (1989)
… aka A City of Sadness (Taiwan: DVD title)
尼罗河女儿 (1987)
… aka Daughter of the Nile
恋恋风尘 (1986)
… aka Dust in the Wind
童年往事 (1985)
… aka A Time to Live and a Time to Die (USA: festival title)
… aka A Time to Live, a Time to Die (International: English title: DVD title)
… aka The Time to Live and the Time to Die
Dongdong de jiaqi (1984)
… aka A Summer at Grandpa’s
Erzi de Dawan’ou (1983)
… aka The Sandwich Man
Fengkuei-lai-te jen (1983)
… aka All the Youthful Days
… aka The Boys from Fengkuei
在那河畔青草青 (1983)
… aka The Green, Green Grass of Home
Feng er ti ta cai (1981)
… aka Blind of Love (Hong Kong: English title: video CD title)
… aka Cheerful Wind
… aka Play While You Play
Jiushi liuliu de ta (1980)
… aka Cute Girl
… aka Lovable You
Writer:
Voyage du ballon rouge, Le (2007)
… aka Flight of the Red Balloon (International: English title)
最好的时光 (2005)
… aka Three Times (International: English title)
Kôhî jikô (2003) (screenplay)
… aka Café Lumière (International: English title) (USA)
去年冬天 (1995)
… aka Heartbreak Island
青梅竹马 (1985)
… aka Taipei Story
童年往事 (1985)
… aka A Time to Live and a Time to Die (USA: festival title)
… aka A Time to Live, a Time to Die (International: English title: DVD title)
… aka The Time to Live and the Time to Die
最想念的季节 (1985)
… aka My Favorite Season (International: English title)
Dongdong de jiaqi (1984) (screenplay)
… aka A Summer at Grandpa’s
小爸爸的天空 (1984)
… aka Out of the Blue (International: English title)
小坯的故事 (1983)
… aka Growing Up
You ma tsai zai (1983)
… aka Ah Fei (International: English title)
在那河畔青草青 (1983)
… aka The Green, Green Grass of Home
巧如彩蝶飞飞飞 (1982)
… aka Six Is Company (International: English title)
早安台北 (1979)
… aka Good Morning, Taipei (International: English title)
翠湖寒 (1976)
… aka The Spring Lake (Hong Kong: English title)
Producer:
Ming dai zhui zhu (2000) (co-executive producer)
… aka Mirror Image (International: English title)
Borderline (1999) (producer)
Qunian dongtian (1995) (executive producer)
… aka Heartbreak Island
Duo-Sang (1994) (executive producer)
… aka A Borrowed Life
Shaolin ye, an la! (1992) (executive producer)
… aka Dust of Angels (Hong Kong: English title)
大红灯笼高高挂 (1991) (executive producer)
… aka Raise the Red Lantern (USA)
棋王 (1991) (associate producer)
… aka King of Chess (Hong Kong: English title)
… aka Qi wang (Hong Kong: Mandarin title)
小坯的故事 (1983) (producer)
… aka Growing Up
Actor:
Lao niang gou sao (1986) …. Boy-Boy
… aka Soul
青梅竹马 (1985) …. Lung
… aka Taipei Story
Second Unit Director or Assistant Director:
天凉好歌曲 (1980) (assistant director)
… aka Spring in Autumn (International: English title)
Self:
Métro Lumière: Hou Hsiao-Hsien à la rencontre de Yasujirô Ozu (2004) (TV)
Jam session – Kikujiro no natsu koshiki kaizokuban (1999) …. Himself
… aka Jam Session (International: English title)
“Cinéma, de notre temps” …. Himself (1 episode, 1997)
– HHH – Un portrait de Hou Hsiao-Hsien (1997) TV Episode …. Himself
Yang ± Yin: Gender in Chinese Cinema (1996)
没有太阳的日子 (1990) …. Himself
… aka Sunless Days