Retrospective - Hsiao Hsien Hou

Hsiao-Hsien Hou was born in Mei County, Guangdong province in 1947. He and his family fled the Chinese Civil War to Taiwan the following year. Hou was educated at the National Taiwan Academy of the Arts.

Hou generally makes rigorously minimalist dramas dealing with the upheavals of the Taiwanese (and occasionally larger Chinese) history of the past century by viewing its impacts on individuals or small groups of characters. A CITY OF SADNESS (1989), for example, portrays a family caught in conflicts between the local Taiwanese and the newly arrived Chinese Nationalist government after World War II. It was groundbreaking for broaching this long-taboo subject and became a major success despite its seemingly non-commercial nature.

His storytelling is elliptical and his style marked by extreme long takes with minimal camera movement but intricate choreography of actors and space within the frame. He uses extensive improvisation to arrive at the final shape of his scenes and the low-key, naturalistic acting of his performers. His compositions are decentred, and links between shots do not adhere to an obvious temporal or causal narrative logic. Without abandoning his famous austerity, his imagery has developed a sensual beauty during the 1990s, partly under the influence of his collaboration with cinematographer Mark Lee Ping-Bin. Hou's consistent screenwriting collaborator since the mid-1980s has been the renowned author Chu Tien-Wen, a collaboration that began with the screenplay for Chen Kunhou's 1983 film, Growing Up. He has also cast revered puppeteer Li Tian-lu as an actor in several of his movies, most notably THE PUPPETMASTER (1993), which is based on Li's life.

Hou's films have been awarded prizes from prestigious international festivals such as the Venice Film Festival, Berlin Film Festival, Hawaii International Film Festival and the Nantes Three Continents Festival. Six of his films to date have been nominated for the Palme d'Or (Best Film) at the Cannes Film Festival, though the prize has so far eluded him. Hou was voted ‘Director of the Decade’ for the 1990s in a poll of American and international critics put together by The Village Voice and Film Comment. Despite such acclaim, his work remains rarely distributed in the West outside of the film festival circuit.

Filmography:
Director (19 titles)
2007 TO EACH HIS OWN CINEMA (SEGMENT "THE ELECTRIC PRINCESS HOUSE")
2007 FLIGHT OF THE RED BALLOON
2005 THREE TIMES
2003 CAFÉ LUMIÈRE
2001 MILLENNIUM MAMBO
1998 FLOWERS OF SHANGHAI
1996 GOODBYE, SOUTH, GOODBYE
1995 GOOD MEN, GOOD WOMEN
1993 IN THE HANDS OF A PUPPET MASTER
1989 A CITY OF SADNESS
1987 DAUGHTER OF THE NILE
1987 DUST IN THE WIND
1986 TONG NIEN WANG SHI
1984 A SUMMER AT GRANDPA'S
1983 THE SANDWICH MAN
1983 FENG GUI LAI DE REN
1983 ZAI NA HE PAN QING CAO QING
1981 FENG ER TI TA CAI
1980 JIU SHI LIU LIU DE TA