Hou Hsiao-hsien
Hou Hsiao-hsien is a Taiwanese film director, screenwriter, producer and actor. He is a leading figure in world cinema and in Taiwan's New Wave cinema movement. He won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 1989 for his film A City of Sadness, and the Best Director award at the Cannes Film Festival in 2015 for The Assassin. Other highly regarded works of his include The Puppetmaster and Flowers of Shanghai.
Hou was voted "Director of the Decade" for the 1990s 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, Hou was named "one of the three directors most crucial to the future of cinema." A City of Sadness ranked 117th in the British Film Institute's 2012 Sight & Sound critics' poll of the greatest films ever made.
Life and career
A Hakka, Hou Hsiao-hsien 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.Internationally, Hou is known for his austere and aesthetically rigorous dramas dealing with the upheavals of Taiwanese history of the past century by viewing its impacts on individuals or small groups of characters. A City of Sadness, 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 the long-taboo February 28 Incident and ensuing White Terror. It became a major critical and commercial success, and garnered the Golden Lion award at the 1989 Venice Film Festival, making it the first Taiwanese film to win the top prize at the prestigious international film festival.
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 decentered, 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 T’ien-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, which is based on Li's life.
Hou's films have been awarded top prizes from prestigious international festivals such as the Venice Film Festival, Cannes 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 at the Cannes Film Festival. 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.
He contributed two songs to the soundtrack of Dust of Angels, a film he produced.
He directed the Japanese film Café Lumière for the Shochiku studio as an homage to Yasujirō Ozu; the film premiered at a festival commemorating the centenary of Ozu's birth. The film deals with themes reminiscent of Ozu—tensions between parents and children and between tradition and modernity—in Hou's typically indirect manner. His 2005 film Three Times features three stories of love set in 1911, 1966 and 2005 using the same actors, Shu Qi and Chang Chen.
In August 2006, Hou embarked on his first Western project. Filmed and financed entirely in France, Flight of the Red Balloon is the story of a French family as seen through the eyes of a Chinese student. The film is the first part in a series of films sponsored by the Musée d'Orsay and stars Juliette Binoche. In 2010, Hou directed the 3D short film for Taipei Pavilion in Expo 2010 Shanghai China.
Hou has also had some acting experience, appearing as the lead in fellow Taiwanese New Wave auteur Edward Yang's 1984 film Taipei Story. He starred as Lung, a former minor league baseball star who is stuck operating an old-style fabric business, longing for his past days of glory. Lung becomes alienated from his girlfriend and tries to find his way in Taipei. Hou also had a small role in the 2013 Chinese comedy-drama film Young Style, about a group of teenagers in high school.
In 2015, Hou won the Best Director award at the Cannes Film Festival for The Assassin.
Films directed
To date, Hou has directed a total of 18 feature films, and three short film segments of omnibus films, which leads to a total 21 films he directed. Out of the 21 films he has directed, he has written or co-written 11 of those films in addition to writing or co-writing 10 other films directed by other filmmakers, including Taipei Story , Heartbreak Island and My Favorite Season .Feature films
Hou has directed a total of 18 feature films. Out of these 18, Hou has written 11.''Cute Girl'' (1980)
Hou's first film as a director, as well as writer, was Cute Girl or Lovable You, a relatively formulaic romantic comedy starring Kenny Bee, Anthony Chan and Feng Fei-fei. The film was primarily devised as a vehicle for Bee and Feng, who were popular pop-stars in Hong Kong and Taiwan, respectively, at the time. Hou would later collaborate with both Bee and Fong later on in his next feature film, Cheerful Wind. Although the film was shot in a more commercial style unlike his later work, film critic and writer David Bordell stated that Cute Girl and the rest of Hou's early films "show developing, in almost casual ways, techniques of staging and shooting that will become his artistic hallmarks."''Cheerful Wind'' (1981)
The second feature film that Hou both wrote and directed was Cheerful Wind , which teamed him up again with the trio of leads from Cute Girl, Kenny Bee, Feng Fei-fei and Anthony Chan.''The Green, Green Grass of Home'' (1982)
Hou's third feature film which he both directed and wrote was The Green, Green Grass of Home , which also starred Kenny Bee from his previous two films but also a set of new actors that Hou previously did not work with before, including child actor Pin-chin Chou, who won a Best Child Star award from the 1982 Golden Horse Film Festival and Awards for his performance in the film. The film was also nominated for Best Film, Best Director and another Best Child Star award at the 1982 Golden Horse Film Festival as well.''The Boys from Fengkuei'' (1983)
As his fourth feature film, The Boys from Fengkuei featured the beginnings of what Hou would later consider tenets of his cinematic style, which include more of a naturalistic style and focusing more on youth and provincial/rural life. The film starred now-director Doze Niu as Ah-Ching, as a member of a gang of young boys who have finished school in their island fishing village of Fengkuei and spend most of their days fighting and drinking. They decide to go to the port city of Kaohsiung to look for work, where Ah-Ching falls in love with a girlfriend of a neighbor. The film is also about how the teenagers face the realities of urban life as they come of age. The film won the Golden Montgolfiere award at the 1984 Nantes Three Continents Festival. It was also nominated for Best Feature Film, Best Director, Best Cinematography, and Best Film Editing awards at the 1984 Golden Horse Film Festival.The "Coming of Age" Trilogy (1984-1986)
Hou's "Coming of Age" trilogy includes the three films: A Summer at Grandpa's, A Time to Live, A Time to Die, and Dust in the Wind.''A Summer at Grandpa's'' (1984)
Hou's fifth feature film was A Summer at Grandpa's, which won a Best Director award for Hou at the 1984 Asia-Pacific Film Festival and the Golden Montgolfiere award at the 1985 Nantes Three Continents Festival, and the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury - Special Mention at the 1985 Locarno International Film Festival. The film was also nominated for a Best Child Star and Best Adapted Screenplay at the 1984 Golden Horse Film Festival. The film also starred fellow New Taiwanese filmmaker Edward Yang in a brief role, with Yang returning the favor by casting Hou in his film Taipei Story.A Summer at Grandpa's is also the first part of Hou's "coming-of-age" trilogy, followed by A Time to Live, A Time to Die and Dust in the Wind.
''A Time to Live, A Time to Die'' (1985)
As his sixth feature film, A Time to Live, A Time to Die was perhaps Hou's first internationally successful film, winning a grand total of 8 awards from film festivals all over the world: a Special Jury Award at the 1985 Asia-Pacific Film Festival, a FIPRESCI Prize at the Forum of New Cinema at the 1986 Berlin International Film Festival, a Best Original Screenplay, a Best Supporting Actress at the 1985 Golden Horse Film Festival and Best Sound Recording, a Special Jury Award at the 1986 Hawaii International Film Festival, a Rotterdam Award for Best Non-American/Non-European Film at the 1987 Rotterdam International Film Festival, a Kinema Junpo Award at the 1990 Kinema Junpo Awards, and a Special Jury Prize at the 1986 Torino International Festival of Young Cinema.''Dust in the Wind'' (1986)
Hou's seventh feature film was Dust in the Wind, which won a Kinema Junpo Award for Best Foreign Language Film Director at the 1990 Kinema Junpo Awards, and Best Cinematography Mark Lee Ping Bin and Best Score at the 1987 Nantes Three Continents Festival.''Daughter of the Nile'' (1987)
Hou's eighth feature film concerns the story of a girl who works at a Kentucky Fried Chicken location in Taipei to support her family, which includes a brother character who is involved in crime and gangs. The title is also a reference to a character in the Japanese manga Crest of the Royal Family who is referred to as the "Daughter of the Nile." The film won a Best Original Film Score award at the 1987 Golden Horse Film Festival and also a Special Jury Prize in the International Feature Film Competition at the 1987 Torino International Festival of Young Cinema.The Taiwanese History Trilogy (1989-1995)
Hou's "Taiwanese History Trilogy" includes the three films: A City of Sadness, The Puppetmaster, and Good Men, Good Women.''A City of Sadness'' (1989)
As his ninth feature film, and first feature film in his "Taiwanese History Trilogy," Hou's A City of Sadness was almost universally acclaimed by film critics as a masterpiece upon its release. It has the distinction of being the first ever Taiwanese film to win the prestigious Golden Lion award at the 1989 Venice Film Festival, where Hou also won a Special Golden Ciak award and a UNESCO Award. It is also the very first film to openly deal with the authoritative rule of the Kuomintang after taking Taiwan over from the Japanese in 1945 following WWII, and the tragic February 28 Incident, where thousands of Taiwanese citizens were killed. In the British Film Institute's 2012 Sight & Sound poll, 2 directors and 14 film critics named it one of "the greatest films ever made" of all time, ranking #322 in the directors' poll and #117 in the critics' poll. The film was also Taiwan's Best Foreign Language Film entry for the 62nd Academy Awards, but it did not make the final nomination shortlist.Starring Tony Leung Chiu-Wai as the deaf-mute but all-seeing Wen-ching and his older brother Wen-leung, the film dealt with political subject matter involving the February 28 Incident and the "White Terror" era where countless Taiwanese citizens were incarcerated and shot by the KMT government in the late 1940s after their displacement from China to Taiwan after the Civil War of 1949.
The film also won Best Director and Best Leading Actor awards at the 1989 Golden Horse Film Festival, where it was also nominated for Best Feature Film, Best Original Screenplay, Best Film Editing, Best Cinematography and Best Sound Recording awards. The film won a Kinema Junpo Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 1991 Kinema Junpo Awards, a Best Foreign Language Film award at the 1991 Mainichi Film Concours, and a Special Award from the USA Political Film Society in 1990. It was also nominated for a Best Foreign Film award at the 1991 Independent Spirit Awards.
''The Puppetmaster'' (1993)
Hou's tenth film, and second film in his "Taiwanese History Trilogy" was The Puppetmaster, a sprawling half-documentary, half-narrative film hybrid that told the story of Li Tian-lu, the most celebrated puppeteer in Taiwan. The film won the Jury Prize at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Palme d'Or. The film was also another masterpiece listed in the 2012 British Film Institute Sight & Sound poll, with three directors and seven film critics declaring it as "one of the greatest films ever made."The Puppetmaster also won FIPRESCI Prize at the 1994 Istanbul International Film Festival, the Georges Delerue Prize at the 1993 Ghent International Film Festival, the Distribution Help Award at the 1994 Fribourg International Film Festival, and Best Cinematography, Best Makeup & Costume Design, and Best Sound Effects at the 1993 Golden Horse Film Festival, where it was also nominated for Best Feature Film, Best Art Direction and Best Original Film Score.
''Good Men, Good Women'' (1995)
The eleventh film of Hou and the third and final film of his "Taiwanese History Trilogy," Good Men, Good Women was a post-modern time-jumping and fourth-wall breaking narrative that jumped between the modern-day life of an actress named Liang Ching and the historical role of Chiang Bi-Yu, who she was portraying in a 1940s period piece film. Jack Kao also appeared as her boyfriend, Ah-Wei. The film was nominated and in competition for the prestigious Palme d'Or at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival, and won Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Sound Recording at the 1995 Golden Horse Film Festival and Awards, where it was also nominated for Best Feature Film, Best Leading Actress and Best Film Editing awards.The film also won Best Director and Best Art Direction awards at the 1996 Asia-Pacific Film Festival, Golden Deer awards for Best Director and Best Film at the 1996 Changchun Film Festival, a Special Jury Award from the 1996 Fribourg International Film Festival, the Golden Maile award for Best Narrative Feature at the 1995 Hawaii International Film Festival, and a FIPRESCI/NETPAC Award and a Special Achievement Award at the 1996 Singapore International Film Festival. The film was also nominated for the Gold Hugo award for Best Feature at the 1995 Chicago International Film Festival.
''Goodbye South, Goodbye'' (1996)
Goodbye South, Goodbye, Hou's twelfth film, was set in rural Taiwan and concerned the lives of Taipei petty criminals played by Giong Lim, Shih-huang Chen, Vicky Wei, Jack Kao, Annie Shizukah Inoh. The film was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival and also won a Best Original Film Song award at the 1996 Golden Horse Film Festival and Awards.''Flowers of Shanghai'' (1998)
Hou's thirteenth film, Flowers of Shanghai, would see him reunite with actor Tony Leung Chiu-Wai from A City of Sadness as well as Jack Kao, and was a period piece set in the elegant brothels of 1880s Shanghai. The screenplay was written and translated by acclaimed novelist Eileen Chang, along with frequent Hou screenwriter collaborator Chu T’ien-wen, based on a novel by Bangqin Han. The film also starred Carina Lau, Michiko Hada, Vicky Wei, Annie Shizukah Inoh, Rebecca Pan and Ming Hsu.The film was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival and also won Best Director and Best Art Director at the 1998 Asia-Pacific Film Festival, the Golden Crow Pheasant award at the 1999 International Film Festival of Kerala, as well as a Jury Award and a Best Art Direction award at the 1998 Golden Horse Film Festival, where it was also nominated for Best Feature, Best Director and Best Makeup & Costume Design.
''Millennium Mambo'' (2001)
Millennium Mambo was Hou's fourteenth film and the film that marked his first collaboration with actress Shu Qi, who would later go on to appear in three other of Hou's later films and become his muse. The film follows Shu as a character named Vicky, who looks back ten years to 2000 when she was in a relationship with Hao-Hao where she is now in a relationship with Jack. The film's free-wheeling style, cinematography and sound design was praised by critics, and also garnered the Technical Grand Prize for the film's sound designer/mixer/director Duu-Chih Tu at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival, where it was also nominated for a Palme d'Or award. The film also won Best Cinematography, Best Sound Effects and Best Original Film Score at the 2001 Golden Horse Film Festival, where it was nominated for Best Leading Actress and Best Original Film Song.For the film, Hou also won the Silver Hugo award at the 2001 Chicago International Film Festival, and a Best Director award as well as a Grand Prix award at the 2001 Ghent International Film Festival. The film was also nominated for a Best Actress award at the 2002 Chinese Media Film Awards, a Screen International Award at the 2001 European Film Awards, and the Golden Maile award at the 2001 Hawaii International Film Festival.
''Café Lumière'' (2003)
Hou's fifteenth feature film - Café Lumière - was a self-acknowledged homage to the cinema of legendary Japanese filmmaker Yasujirō Ozu, who Hou considers a major influence on his own work. Set in Tokyo for the most part, the film starred Japanese pop singer Yo Hitoto as Yōko in her acting debut as well as renown Japanese actor Tadanobu Asano as Hajime Takeuchi. The film won the Golden Tulip award at the 2005 Istanbul International Film Festival, and was also nominated for the Golden Lion award at the 2004 Venice Film Festival and a "Best Film Not in the English Language" award at the 2004 International Cinephile Society Awards.''Three Times'' (2005)
Three Times would mark Hou's second collaboration with actress Shu Qi and first collaboration with actor Chang Chen. It is also his sixteenth film, and weaves together three separate stories that describe the relationship of a couple played by Shu and Chang during three separate time periods: "A Time for Love" set in 1966 Kaohsiung; "A Time for Freedom" set in 1911 Dadaocheng; and "A Time for Youth" set in 2005 Taipei.The film was also nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival and at the 2005 Golden Horse Film Festival, the film won Best Actress, Best Taiwanese Film of the Year and Best Taiwanese Filmmaker of the Year awards, while being nominated for Best Feature Film, Best Director, Best Leading Actor, Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, Best Makeup & Costume Design, and Best Film Editing awards. The film also won the Grand Prix / Golden Apricot award for Best Film at the 2006 Yerevan International Film Festival, a Jury Prize from the 2005 Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, where it was also nominated for the Grand Prize. Finally, the film was also nominated for a Best Asian Film award from the 2006 Hong Kong Film Awards and a Best Foreign Language Film award from the 2006 St. Louis Film Critics Association Awards. In an Indiewire Critics' Poll taken in 2006 for Best Film of the Year, the film was ranked in 6th place.
''Flight of the Red Balloon'' (2007)
Hou's seventeenth film and first "foreign language" film was Flight of the Red Balloon , which starred acclaimed French actress Juliette Binoche, Hippolyte Girardot, Fang Song and others. The film was nominated for the Un Certain Regard award at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival and also won the FIPRESCI Prize at the 2007 Valladolid International Film Festival as well. The film's cinematographer, Mark Lee Ping-Bin aka Ping Bin Lee, also won 2nd place for a Best Cinematography award from the National Society of Film Critics.Furthermore, the film won Best Film and Best Director awards in an Indiewire Critics' Poll taken in 2008, which ranked Binoche's performance in the film the 5th best one of that year and in a Village Voice Film Poll taken the same year, the film won 2nd place for Best Film and 3rd place for Best Actress. In addition, Flight of the Red Balloon won 3rd place in the 2009 International Cinephile Society Awards for the "Best Film Not in the English Language" award, and the ICS also nominated the film for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Cinematography awards. The film was also nominated for a Best Foreign Language Film by the Online Film & Television Association in 2009.
''The Assassin'' (2015)
The Assassin was Hou's eighteenth feature film and garnered him the Best Director award at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, where composer Giong Lim also won the Cannes Soundtrack Award. The film also swept the 2015 Golden Horse Film Festival and Awards, winning a grand total of five awards: Best Director, Best Feature Film, Best Cinematography, Best Makeup & Costume Design, and Best Sound Effects.> The film was also nominated for 5 additional Golden Horse awards: Best Leading Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Art Direction, Best Original Film Score and Best Film Editing. The film was also nominated for a BAFTA Award for "Best Foreign Language Film", but lost to Wild Tales.The Assassin also won a Best Foreign Language Film award from the 2015 Florida Film Critics Circle Awards, a "Best Film Not in the English Language" award from the Online Film Critics Society, and a Best Foreign Language film award from the Vancouver Film Critics Circle in 2016. The film also won 2nd place for a Best Foreign Language Film award from the Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association in 2015, 3rd place in a 2015 indieWire Critics' Poll for Best Director and Best Cinematography, where it also received an 8th place for Best Film and a 9th place for Best Editing, and 2nd place for a Best Foreign Language Film Award from the Southeastern Film Critics Association Awards in 2015.
In addition, the film was nominated for a Best Foreign Language Film award from the 2016 Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards, a Best Foreign Language Film award from the Central Ohio Film Critics Association in 2016, a Best Foreign Language Film award from the Houston Film Critics Society in 2016, a Best Foreign Language Film award from the North Carolina Film Critics Association in 2016, and Best Motion Picture award and won the Best Costume Design award from the Satellite Awards in 2015.
The Assassin was also nominated for a Best Art Direction/Production Design award and a Best Foreign Language Film award from the Chicago Film Critics Association in 2015, an Art Cinema award from the 2015 Hamburg Film Festival, a Best Foreign Film award from the Kansas City Film Critics Circle in 2015, a Best International Film award from the Phoenix Critics Circle in 2015, a Best Cinematography and Best Foreign Language Film from the San Francisco Film Critics Circle in 2015, a Best Foreign Language Film award from the St. Louis Film Critics Association in 2015, a Best Foreign Language Film award from the Toronto Film Critics Association in 2016, and a Best Foreign Language Film award from the Washington DC Area Film Critics Association in 2015.
The film was also Taiwan's official entry as Best Foreign Language Film at the 88th Academy Awards but did not make the final shortlist.