Happy 73rd Birthday, Hou Hsiao-hsien! Born today in 1947, this Taiwanese actor, screemwriter, producer and film director is a leading figure in world cinema and in Taiwan's New Wave cinema movement.
Among his credits during the 1980s, Hsiao-hsien is best known for directing the 1985 Taiwanese drama film Tóngnián wangshì'('The Time to Live and the Time to Die').
The film is the second part of his coming-of-age trilogy, preceded by the 1984 Taiwanese drama film 'Dōng dōng de jiàqī' ('A Summer at Grandpa's') and followed by the 1986 Taiwanese drama/romance film 'Liàn liàn fengchén' ('Dust in the Wind').
The film is the second part of his coming-of-age trilogy, preceded by the 1984 Taiwanese drama film 'Dōng dōng de jiàqī' ('A Summer at Grandpa's') and followed by the 1986 Taiwanese drama/romance film 'Liàn liàn fengchén' ('Dust in the Wind').
Four years after 'The The Time to Live and the Time to Die' Hsiao-hsien directed his second best known film of the 1980s. This was the 1989 Taiwanese biographical drama/war film 'Bēiqíng chéngshì'('A City of Sadness').
In the 1990s, Hsiao-hsien is best known for directing the 1993 Taiwanese drama/war film 'Xi meng ren sheng' ('The Puppetmaster').
Based on the memoirs of Taiwanese puppeteer Li Tian-lu, Taiwan's most celebrated puppeteer, this story covers the years from Li's birth in 1910 to the end of Japan's fifty-year occupation of Taiwan in 1945.
Many consider 'The Puppetmaster' a masterpiece of world cinema. In the British Film Institute's 2012 Sight & Sound poll, seven critics and three directors named it one of the greatest films ever made.
For the 1990s, Hsiao-hsien was voted "Director of the Decade" in a poll of American and international critics by The Village Voice and Film Comment.
In a 1998 New York Film Festival worldwide critics' poll, Hsiao-hsien was named "one of the three directors most crucial to the future of cinema."
His film 'A City of Sadness' ranked 117th in the British Film Institute's 2012 Sight & Sound critics' poll of the greatest films ever made.
His film 'A City of Sadness' ranked 117th in the British Film Institute's 2012 Sight & Sound critics' poll of the greatest films ever made.
The films of Hsiao-hsien are often concerned with his experiences of growing up in rural Taiwan in the 1950s and 1960s.
The 1950s marked a time in which refugee families from the mainland were struggling painfully for survival, while the 1960s saw the beginning of the most significant social change in modern Taiwan.
The 1950s marked a time in which refugee families from the mainland were struggling painfully for survival, while the 1960s saw the beginning of the most significant social change in modern Taiwan.
The economic boom of that period meant the beginning of Western-style industrialization and urbanization. The normal frustrations of growing up were aggravated by these complicated changes, and Hou's films are intimate expressions of those experiences.
His emotionally charged work is replete with highly nostalgic images and beautiful compositions; their power lies in his total identification with the past and the fate of families who suffered through difficult times.
His emotionally charged work is replete with highly nostalgic images and beautiful compositions; their power lies in his total identification with the past and the fate of families who suffered through difficult times.
His stories, often written in collaboration with Taiwanese fiction writer T'ien-wen Chu and Taiwanese scriptwriter, director and author Nien-Jen Wu, depict the complex intertwining of the different strands that shape the lives of individuals. In a poetic yet relaxed style, they reflect a deep sympathy and a profound humanism.
Outwardly tranquil yet steeped in the political turbulence of the past century of Taiwanese (and larger Chinese) history, Hsiao-hsien’s meditative cinema has received infuriatingly limited distribution in the west.
Hsiao-hsien has been active from 1980–present.
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