Hou Hsiao-Hsien Movies
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, Rovi
- 1982
A very unhappy and desperate young woman (Joan Lin) -- pregnant and alone, discarded like so much wrapping paper by her ex-lover -- turns to the "Sad Sack" Cheng Wei (Kenny Bee) for help, nurturing, and advice -- should she get an abortion? That is the overriding issue, and poor Cheng Wei, who forever insists on helping out in just these types of unfortunate dilemmas, might be in over his head. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Kenny Bee
- 1983
This comedy-drama follows a young man as he changes from an intelligently aware youth, to a teenager with much less confidence than he once had, and finally, to a stable adult. Along the way, his mother remarries to obtain the financial security she needs for her family and the subsequent family relationships are all affected. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- 1983
In this routine look at the activities inside a small country school, teacher Lu Danian (Kenny Bec) arrives in a rural community fired up with plans for the future and armed with new teaching techniques and methodologies. Along with his new life comes an unexpected romantic interest in one of the teachers at the school, which ends his current love affair. Not confining himself to the classroom alone, Lu starts to champion an environmental rehaul for the district as a whole. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- 1983
In this ethnic drama with a sketchy storyline but an engaging sense of time and place, three young men leave their rural island homes looking for better economic opportunities and perhaps a little more excitement. From their listless life on the small island of Fenggui, off the coast of Taiwan, the three arrive in the city of Gaoxiung where they find temporary shelter at the home of the sister of one of them. She also helps them get jobs in a factory -- a good sign for the future. As they settle into city life, the man next door takes off to evade the police who are after him, and his wife is left alone. She and one of the three men soon establish a tentative relationship -- though their future together seems uncertain. Director Hou Hsiao-hsien is well-recognized for his talent, and if viewers read between the lines they may see references to the split between native Taiwanese speaking their own languages and the mainland Mandarin speakers who invaded the island in 1949 to set up a government in exile. Antagonism between the Taiwanese, who were at first excluded from many important government jobs, and the mainland Chinese, who were at first foreigners, was an open and acknowledged problem for decades. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Niu Cheng-tse, Lin Hsiao-Ling, (more)
- 1984
Grandpa (Koo Chuen) and Grandma (Mei Fong) live in the fertile Taiwanese countryside. A boy (Wang Chi-Kwang) and his sister (Sun Cheeng-Lee) are packed off to their grandparents when their mother falls ill. Though relationships are strained at first, the boy and girl end up having a wonderful summer with grandpa, as the old man takes them on fishing trips and helps them in their search for a lost cow. Summer At Grandpa's didn't have a very long theatrical life in Taiwan, though it proved more successful on the international scene. The film's original title was Tung-Tung-Te-Chia-Ch'i, which in itself is reason enough to see it. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Wang Chi-Kwang
- 1985
Old double standards and new equality for women clash head-on in this story about two generations: a mistreated but strong mother and her independent, educated daughter. Xiu Qin has an arranged marriage, is physically abused by her husband, and yet her family forces her to remain with him. In spite of her miserable life, she makes sure her children get an education, and since her daughter Ah-fei is talented, she ultimately graduates from the university and lands a good job as an executive. Although she helps her family by moving them into a better home in the city, she comes into conflict with her mother when she meets a young man she likes and has her own ideas about how to handle a relationship.
~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Su Ming Ming
- 1985
The disintegration of a relationship has undertones that find an echo in the possible disintegration of both the economy and the society in this intriguing tale from director Edward Yang. Qin (Cai Qin) has a high-paying job in a computer company, and her fiancé, Lon (Hou Xiaoxian), works in a textile company. Their relationship was never strong, since Lon still harbors some feelings for his ex-girlfriend and tends to dwell in his past glories as a baseball player. After Qin gets a new apartment for them both, everything collapses. She loses her job when the computer company is bought out, her father needs money, her sister needs an abortion, and she suspects that Lon is off seeing his old girlfriend. Lon himself shies away from marriage, gambles away whatever he earns, and worries about one of his friends in need of help. With these demands and strains on their relationship, matrimony hardly seems like a viable option. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Tsai Chin, (more)
- 1985
One of Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-Hsien's best-known films, this semi-autobiographical drama follows the childhood and teenage years of a young man named Ah-ha, as he comes of age in the Taiwan countryside. Though born on the Chinese mainland, Ah-ha moves to Taiwan at a very early age when his father accepts a government position upon the island. His family soon becomes permanent residents of the island, thanks a combination of historical circumstance -- the Communist takeover of the mainland -- and his father's increasingly poor health. The family endures, despite serious financial difficulties that lead several of his older siblings to compromise their dreams for the sake of the common good, and cause increasing tension between the family members. Soon, Ah-ha's father has passed away and his siblings have left home, leaving him responsible for the family's well-being while dealing with his own personal struggles. This deliberate, intimately detailed drama utilizes a straightforward, unadorned style to present the family's trials and tribulations, which also reflect the shifts in Taiwanese society during the time of the director's youth. One of Hou Hsiao-Hsien's biggest successes in his home country, the film also received worldwide acclaim, winning special recognition at the Berlin Film Festival. ~ Judd Blaise, Rovi
- Starring:
- T'ien Feng, Mei Fang, (more)
- 1986
A wife becomes a widow when her policeman husband commits suicide by jumping off the roof of his building at work. Shocked at his death, she is further surprised to discover he had a mistress and a four-year-old son in Taiwan. After an attempt on the widow's life, the mistress is murdered, leaving the young boy in the care of the late man's wife. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi
- Starring:
- Deanie Ip, Elaine Jin, (more)
- 1987
One glance at the 1989 Daughter of the Nile will convince the viewer that this is not the cheapjack 1969 American TV movie of the same name. Instead, this is a compelling Taiwanese drama about a wistful schoolgirl (Yang Lin) who is peripherally involved in a teen-aged crime ring. She escapes from the harshness of her surrounding reality by reading her favorite comic book, Daughter of the Nile. Despite its inherent whimsical nature, the film is a straight-on look at urban decay in modern Taiwan. Daughter of the Nile was originally released as Nilouhe Nuer. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1987
Master filmmaker Hou Hsiao Hsien directs this wistful story about lost love and lost innocence among Taiwan's working class. Wan (Wang Chien-wen) and Huen (Hsin Shu-feng) are high school sweethearts living in a down-and-out mining community of Jio-fen in Taiwan's backwaters. Too poor to continue their education, the two drop out of school and move to Taipei to find employment. When Wan's father learns of his son's decision, he simply says, "When you are willing to make yourself an ox, there will always be someone with a plow." Huen finds work as a seamstress. Wan becomes a printer's assistant and then a motorcycle delivery boy. The time passes as they work all day, pursue their studies at night school, and spend their scant free time drinking with their friends -- all working similarly menial jobs. One friend is beaten with an iron bar by his abusive boss; another has his finger chopped off in a machine. One by one, these friends are called up for their obligatory two years of military service. One day, while taking Huen shoe shopping, Wan has his bike stolen. Furious and out of a job, Wan wanders around the streets of Taipei until he contracts bronchitis. Huen lovingly nurses him back to health. Then he gets called up for military service. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi
- Starring:
- Hsin Shu-fen, Wong Jing Man, (more)
- 1989
Seen through the prism of the Lin family, this complex family drama from Taiwanese master Hou Hsiao Hsien details a brief but crucial moment in Taiwanese history between 1945, when 50 years of Japanese colonial rule came to an end, and 1949, when Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist Kuomintang forces established a government-in-exile after the Communist army captured mainland China. The film opens with the reedy voice of Emperor Hirohito announcing Japan's surrender as the eldest of the Lin clan's four sons awaits the birth of his child in a coastal town not far from Taipei. Soon afterward, he changes the name of his Japanese decorated bar to "Little Shanghai" and begins trading in the post-war black market. The second son has died in Philippines during the war. The third son, who had a nervous breakdown in Shanghai, starts to consort with Shanghaiese drug dealers upon his return to Taiwan. Once the eldest learns of the third's dealings, he forces him to stop. In retaliation, the Shanghaiese mob arranges for the third son to be imprisoned on trumped up charges of collaboration with the Japanese. The youngest son, Wen-ching, is a gentle deaf-mute photographer who has leftist leanings. The film climaxes with the notorious Incident of February 28, 1947, a Tiananmen Square-style massacre of native Taiwanese committed by Kuomintang troops resulting in between 18,000 to 28,000 causalities. The wounded pour into the neighbor clinic as Wen-ching and his friend Hinoe get arrested. After his release, Hinoe heads for the mountains to join the leftist guerillas while Wen-ching promises to look after his friend's sister Hinomi. Soon after, Wen-ching and Hinomi marry. Just as she is about to bear a child, however, the Kuomintang arrests Wen-ching for his involvement with the guerillas. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi
- Starring:
- Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Jack Kao, (more)
The phenomenal success and international acclaim of Raise the Red Lantern, cemented Zhang Yimou's status as a leading figure in world cinema and reaffirmed the vibrancy of Chinese cinema. Though the film was the topic of great political controversy in China upon its release, it received armfuls of awards from Belgium, Italy, the United Kingdom and a nomination for an Academy Award.
This sumptuously photographed drama, set in Northern China in the 1920s and based on the novel Wives and Concubines by Su Tong, stars Gong Li as Songlian, the fourth wife of an elderly landlord. Songlian is a college student who has been married off by her stepmother, so it is with tremendous frustration that this woman, who had hopes of using her education to broaden her horizons, now finds herself reduced to a small enclosure at the beck and call of her husband. Despite being given a maid (Kong Lin) and luxurious surroundings, she feels trapped inside the cheerless walls. Upon her arrival, Songlian realizes that she must keep one step ahead of her rivals, the three other wives. She also learns of her husband's tradition of lighting a lantern outside of the house of the wife with whom he intends to spend the night. During the first night together with her husband, she finds he is called away to tend to his spoiled third wife (He Caifei). Songlian then becomes acquainted with his other wives -- his first wife (Jin Shuyuan), an elderly woman who ignores Songlian; the third wife, an ex-opera singer; and the second wife (Cao Cuifeng), who offers Songlian friendship and helpful advice. But it turns out that the second wife's motives are not exactly innocent--she is conspiring with Songlian's maid to undermine both the third wife and Songlian. Raise the Red Lantern is a moving exploration of power in a suffocating world of ossified tradition and naked ambition-a masterpiece of 1990s world cinema. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi
This sumptuously photographed drama, set in Northern China in the 1920s and based on the novel Wives and Concubines by Su Tong, stars Gong Li as Songlian, the fourth wife of an elderly landlord. Songlian is a college student who has been married off by her stepmother, so it is with tremendous frustration that this woman, who had hopes of using her education to broaden her horizons, now finds herself reduced to a small enclosure at the beck and call of her husband. Despite being given a maid (Kong Lin) and luxurious surroundings, she feels trapped inside the cheerless walls. Upon her arrival, Songlian realizes that she must keep one step ahead of her rivals, the three other wives. She also learns of her husband's tradition of lighting a lantern outside of the house of the wife with whom he intends to spend the night. During the first night together with her husband, she finds he is called away to tend to his spoiled third wife (He Caifei). Songlian then becomes acquainted with his other wives -- his first wife (Jin Shuyuan), an elderly woman who ignores Songlian; the third wife, an ex-opera singer; and the second wife (Cao Cuifeng), who offers Songlian friendship and helpful advice. But it turns out that the second wife's motives are not exactly innocent--she is conspiring with Songlian's maid to undermine both the third wife and Songlian. Raise the Red Lantern is a moving exploration of power in a suffocating world of ossified tradition and naked ambition-a masterpiece of 1990s world cinema. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi
In Taipei, Taiwan, a television executive is helping the emcee of a television show about child prodigies prepare for a segment featuring a young chess prodigy. While he does this, he remembers a visit to the mainland at the time of the Cultural Revolution to visit a cousin. While traveling by train, he encountered another chess player who was on his way to a prison camp. As he wonders what happened to him, the film cuts back and forth between the two different stories. One is about the cutthroat competition the prodigy must face in 1980s Taipei, the other is about tournament competition in Chinese labor camps in the 1960s. This film looks like two films cobbled together, because that's exactly what it is. After the director of the prison-camp chess match film walked off the job, the film sat on the shelf until the producer could think up a way to finish it. His solution was to shoot a parallel, contemporary story and intercut between the two. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Tony Leung Kar-Fai, Yang Lin, (more)
- 1992
A-kuo and A-tou are teen-aged boys living in an industrial town in Taiwan. When they are not in school, they generally hang out with their buddy Hsiao Kao, a very stylish and charismatic younger gangster who enjoys their company and support. When one of Hsia Kao's gangland patrons is gunned down, the trio set out to revenge the killing. As a result, the two teens are forced into hiding. One boy tells his dad he wants to go to America, which nearly kills the old man. The other just lays low. When things cool down a bit, they head on up to Taipei, looking for their gangster friend and sampling the gritty pleasures of the capital city's underworld and nightlife. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jack Kao
This Hou Hsiao Hsien masterpiece is a portrait of the childhood and adolescence of octogenarian Taiwanese puppet master and actor Li T'ien-lu, who narrates the film both off-screen and on-screen. In this second installment of a trilogy on Taiwanese life in the 20th century (City of Sadness is the first and Good Men, Good Women is the third), Li's development as an artist and husband plays out between 1908 and 1945 under the heavy hand of Japanese rule, paralleling the development of Taiwan's own political consciousness. The movie deftly shifts from a dramatization of Li's life, to Li speaking directly to the camera about his experiences, to his puppet performances in a semi-documentary style that recalls The Thin Blue Line (1988). Here, as in most of his films, Hou uses long takes and off-screen space to create a complex, richly layered meditation on personal, artistic, and national aspirations. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi
- Starring:
- Li Tian-lu
- 1994
Despite the fact that he has a perfectly fine girlfriend (Tracy Su), Ah-feng (Lin Chung) has grown obsessed with the charms of Tang (Veronica Yip). Unfortunately for him and all his friends, Tang is the mistress of Chao (ack Gao), the head of one of Taipei's more vicious gangs. Before long, Ah-feng's friend Polo (David Wu) and his friend Maggie (Amy Lee) are also involved in his quest for the elusive beauty, and soon the situation grows violent. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Veronica Yip
- 1994
- R
This Taiwanese drama focuses on the strained relations between a father and son. It is set in a small mining village on the northern tip of Taiwan. This area owes it's development to Japan which once controlled it. The older residents of the town still hold the Japanese in high regard, but the post-WW II generation is contemptuous of their benefactors. This generational difference creates the conflict between the father, Sega, a miner, and son, Wen-Jian. The story is told from Wen-Jian's point of view and flashes back to three parts of Wen-Jian's life. Each part reflects upon the impact the Japanese had upon the town and his father's life. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Tsai Chen-Nan, Tsai Chiou-Fong, (more)
- 1995
Hou Hsiao Hsien rounds out his loose trilogy on Taiwanese history -- The Puppet Master dealt with Japan's occupation of the island and City of Sadness focuses on Chiang Kai-shek's bloody occupation immediately following the war -- with this mediation on the anti-Communist campaign during the 1950s. The story is ostensibly about the real life events of Chiang Bi-yu (Annie Shizuka Inoh), who ventures to China with her new husband, Chung Hao-tung (Lim Giong), to join the anti-Japanese resistance along with three other friends. Once in China, they are immediately suspected of being Japanese spies and are almost executed. While working with the resistance, Chiang is forced to give up her first-born child -- the call of the motherland had no time for motherhood. When the war ends, they return to Taiwan. Chung takes a job as the principal of a school in the south of the island and starts a Marxist journal called the Enlightenment. As the Red Army swept down the Korean peninsula, Chiang Kai-shek -- at the behest of the Americans -- instituted the White Terror, which rooted out communists of every color. Soon Chung and Chiang are rounded up and brutally interrogated. Chiang is eventually released to her small brood of children while Chung is thrown against the wall and shot. Hou complicates this narrative by layering an additional story line about an actress, Liang Ching (also played by Annie Shizuka Inoh), who is rehearsing for a movie about the life of Chiang Bi-yu. Still reeling from the murder of her gangster boyfriend, Ah Wei (Jack Kao), three years previous, Liang is being faxed daily pages of her stolen diary, forcing her to confront her past. Soon the borders between the lives of Chiang and Liang become less and less distinct. This film was dubbed the single best film of the 1990s by Cahier du Cinema. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi
- 1995
This Taiwanese romantic drama has political overtones. It is the story of a radical political activist who was incarcerated 10 years ago for throwing bombs. In prison, Lin-lang sustains herself by keeping her political passions burning and by remaining devoted to her former lover, Wang Rong, who has since married and owns a successful coffee shop. Upon her release, Lin-lang goes to look for Wang, and finally finds him at his favorite baseball practice field. He is not happy to see her and shows no interest in politics or in renewing their relationship, which is suddenly presented via flashback. Wang began as a student activist in Taiwan's civil rights movement. In 1979, a bloody battle between government authorities and the activists took place in the southern town of Kaohsiung. There Wang was arrested and was supposed to be executed. Even then Lin-lang was obsessed with him, and to avenge his death, began tossing bombs. More of the story is revealed as Lin-lang continues trying to recapture those times by looking up old friends and compatriots only to discover that the radicals have settled down to comfortably middle-class lives. In the end, the obsessive woman resorts to kidnapping Wang's baby to get his attention. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- 1996
After spending much of the decade making films about Taiwan's complex and troubled history, Hou Hsiao Hsien turns his attention to its money-obsessed present with this gangster drama. Tattooed mobster, Kao (Jack Kao), and his quick-tempered, aptly named protégé, Flathead (Lim Giong), along with their girlfriends, Ying (Hsu Kuei-ying) and Pretzel (Annie Shizuka Inoh), are desperately trying to make it big. Their master plan is open a disco in Shanghai, but that scheme seems less and less likely with each call they get from their cell phone. Corrupt mainland potentates want a king's ransom in kickbacks while Pretzel racked up a king's ransom of debt herself at the mahjong table, prompting her to make a half-hearted suicide attempt. To make ends meet, these would-be entrepreneurs make a stab at swindling the government over swine -- selling sows when they are supposed to be the more valuable studs. They wine and dine the farmers in rural backwater Chiayi only to get cut out of the deal and kidnapped by the corrupt police. This film was dubbed of the ten best films of the 1990s by numerous critics, including Susan Sontag. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jack Kao, Hsu Kuei-ying, (more)
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