Taiwan's Hou Hsiao-Hsien (pronounced Ho Shao-Shen) was one of the great discoveries of my movie watching life. I’d seen his name pop up every once in a while in threads on critics lists of best movies of the 80's or 90's, or Best Directors lists or whatever. He didn't seem to come up as much as other international directors, so it took me a while to expand into his work, but I'm glad I did. I think it was around the time I was finishing my initial Hayao Miyazaki quest, and looking for another director to check into. I already loved Akira Kurosawa, had just discovered and loved Miyazaki, and thought I should branch out to other Asian filmmakers and why not look outside of Japan?
The only movie of his I was able to get my hands on at the time was 2005's Three Times. Although I read it wasn't a great entry point into Hou's work, more of a culmination of his formalist style, but also much more experimental than usual, I went in anyway and I was blown away. The control of his camera, the tone, atmosphere, the way he let things breathe. He would let his characters just....be. Onscreen! He was never grasping for attention, he patiently unfolded everything, which rather than making me slump back in my chair and lose interest, it made me sit up and pay even closer attention. I immediately ordered a now out of print 8 film box set because even though I’d only seen one of his movies, I could tell that this was a genius filmmaker and one of my new favorites. He has stayed one of my favorites in the ensuing 10 years or so, and I even had the privilege of seeing 2015's The Assassin, one of the most beautiful movies ever made, on the big screen.
Hou has always been adored by film critics. Many of his movies have been nominated for the Palme d'Or, the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival. The Assassin even won Hou the Best Director award when it screened there. A City of Sadness was the first Taiwanese film to win the Golden Lion, the top prize at the prestigious Venice Film Festival. In a poll of American and international film critics put together by The Village Voice and Film Comment magazine, Hou was voted the "Director of the 1990's". In a 1998 New York Film Festival worldwide critics poll, Hou was named "one of the three directors most crucial to the future of cinema." Although he often tackles historical times and subjects, such as in The Assassin, A City of Sadness, and The Puppetmaster, he's not afraid to throw modern set tales as well, like Three Times, or even make cinematic tributes like Flight of the Red Balloon (a riff on the great 1956 French short film The Red Balloon) or Cafe Lumiere (his tribute to the work of legendary Japanese director Yasujirō Ozu). Also, every one of his movies displays his impeccable camerawork and cinematographic beauty. Check out any of his films if you haven't already.
Acclaimed Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-ho (maker of international hits like The Host, Snowpiercer, and Okja) has listed A City of Sadness as one of his 10 favorite movies ever made. And American indie film godfather Jim Jarmusch said, when Three Times was released:
Hou Hsiao-hsien is not only the crowning jewel of contemporary Taiwanese cinema, but an international treasure. His films are, for me, among the most inspiring of the past thirty years, and his grace and subtlety as a filmmaker remain unrivaled. Film after film, Hou Hsiao-hsien is able to adeptly balance a historical and cultural overview with the smallest, most quiet and intimate details of individual interactions. His narratives can appear offhand and non-dramatic, and yet the structures of the films themselves are all about storytelling and the beauty of its variations. And Hou's camera placement is never less than exquisite.
His newest film, THREE TIMES, is also his newest masterpiece. A trilogy of three love stories, Chang Chen and Shu Qi beautifully portray Taiwanese lovers in three distinct time periods: 1966, 1911 and 2005. The first section (in 1966), just on its own, is one of the most perfect pieces of cinema I’ve ever seen. The second, set in a brothel in 1911, remarkably explores dialogue and verbal exchange by almost completely eliminating sound itself (!), while the final piece leaves us in present-day Taipei — a city of rapidly changing social and physical landscapes where technology has a harsh effect on delicate interpersonal communication. The resonance of these combined stories, their differences and similarities, their quietness and seeming simplicity, left me in a near dream-state - something that only happens to me after the most striking cinematic experiences.
What are your thoughts on this paragon of the Taiwanese New Wave?
My ratings of his work:
- A City of Sadness - 10/10
- The Assassin - 10/10
- Three Times - 10/10
- A Time to Live, a Time to Die - 9/10
- Dust in the Wind - 9/10
- Flight of the Red Balloon - 9/10
- The Puppetmaster - 8/10
- Cafe Lumiere - 8/10
- The Boys from Fengkuei - 6/10
- A Summer at Grandpa’s - 6/10
- Goodbye South Goodbye - 5/10
And I’ve got so many left to see that I am excited for, especially Flowers of Shanghai.
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