Hou Hsiao-Hsien

There was talk of the heavy debt to Ozu (who I'm not familiar with) but I definitely want to see it again.

i guess i would like to see his other films so i can test this.

Armond nailed Flight of the Red Balloon for me, I'm afraid (except he liked Binoche more):

http://www.nypress.com/21/14/film/ArmondWhite2.cfm

I've really been underwhelmed post-Flowers of Shanghai, save for the 'silent' chapter of 3x.

Godfrey Cheshire, whelmed:

Hou is a genius, it is said; therefore every film of his is a work of art. In this case, though I'm a longtime admirer and defender of the director, I must beg to differ. Hou's latest strikes me as a trifle, more perplexing than interesting, with inherent problems that are bound up with the fact that it's the first movie he has made outside of Asia....

So why would he go off to France and make a Juliette Binoche movie? There are two primary reasons, I think, and neither is particularly salutary....

http://www.indyweek.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A259868

Pokey in spots, and Binoche's dye job makes her look like she's auditioning to play Courtney Love, but I rather loved this, especially since the original film is oh-so-precious. Rewatching certain scenes between the three main characters in Binoche's apartments, I was struck by how wittily Hou pans subtly between the child and the adults; it's like Janes' What Maisie Knew -- this child barely cognizant of what these confused adults are up to; yet there's enough distance between his perceptions and ours that the two women's interactions are regarded quizzically, affectionately.

i think one reason i love slow movies is that i sometimes something in the movie will send off on a 5 minute day dream and i wont have really missed anything plot wise. i kind of like it when a movie does not demand my attention.
― ryan (ryan), Monday, 21 March 2005 01:45 (5 years ago)

neglected slow cinema wisdom

hsh is super great

hhh :/

from his 00s stuff, millenium mambo was amazing (unjustly neglected), coffee time was very good and red balloon wd probably have been completely insufferable if entrusted to anyone else

http://stargamer1138.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/triple-h-7.jpg

red balloon playing here in two days - good or just not completely insufferable?

dyao successfully triangulates the asian minimalism / dixie proletkult demographics ^^

anything by hou is worth seeing, he is that great

red balloon is a rly weak idea for a movie but he does his best

"anything by hou is worth seeing, he is that great"

otm

City Of Sadness and The Puppetmaster are so perrfect.

juliette binoche is also wonderful in red balloon, but i agree the movie is really weak -- my fave hou would be a time to live and a time to die -- best $5 i ever spent on a chinatown dvd

am i alone in preferring his later/'urban' films? i'm going to queue up daughter of the nile, next; idk whether it's just that I don't have the same appetite for historical films but I think I 'like' the 2000s stuff more, whereas I more 'admire' what I've seen of the earlier, bigger-deal films (puppetmaster, dust in the wind).

& yeah I know I probably oughtta get around to CoS/FoS before I start this kind of conversation

The Puppetmaster is a real paint-drying film for me; I have no idea how I stayed awake in atheater in the '90s. Partly to do with my hating most puppetry from any culture?

Flowers of Shanghai is a much tougher watch at home too (esp on a crappy tape), but still easily my fave of his.

yeah i found the puppetmaster drier than most seemed to. & the jacket said HOU-LARIOUS!, which didn't help. the puppetry = some of the best parts, though!

i've still never caught flowers of shanghai or city of sadness - i had the impression that they were both super-long, where as only one is, i think. but a cinema viewing would be nice.

Puppetry is usually the best part of almost any movie it's in. The 400 Blows is one of the only exceptions I can even think of atm.

I'm in the FOS/GSG camp.

i really wanted to love city of sadness but found it far too long, and not meaty enough. i did really like a time to live and die (saw it twice, and liked it much better 2nd time round, maybe i need to do that with all his films) but this i just found dreary. took me about an hour to get into its rhythm, but found it impossible to really navigate all the characters when i did. maybe its this film, or maybe its just him, but his style can be too delicate and slight. beautiful and poetic, sure, but i wanted more than that - everything was as if it was rendered in miniature, but it makes it hard to get any sense of an emotional arc. its all just played at one pitch almost. found it easy to like particular scenes, but difficult to get a handle on the bigger picture. did love the idea of rendering every letter thats read out on the screen though - that was a lovely touch. a time to live somehow seemed better as his simple style suited the relatively simple story (though it was still epic in scope).

Was there too. There was this tension in the film between the telling of the history and the telling of that family's history that seemed unresolved by Hou. When the deaf man and his wife-to-be start conversing independently of the rest of the family -- who are talking about the political situation, big boy stuff -- and the two talk instead about their lives and the music playing you are clearly seeing what Hou is more interested in. Or at least the terrain he feels more comfortable in, because the bigger picture details did get lost over time. He never found any equilibrium here.

Its a film I'd watch again someday - it was interesting to depict such a turbulent time for a nation in such a non-epic manner.

One other thing I'd remark on is how 80s those keyboard stabs sounded to me. You can so date the movie through that, its how I amuse myself.

i found myself stuck between frustration that a subject like this DID deserve the big epic treatment and trying to see the reason for why hou wouldnt take that approach. neither was particularly satisfying. his small-detail minutiae focus can be riveting (eg a time to live...), it can also feel like a safe option. avoiding obvious big drama might seem brave or clever but it also just seems like an easy way out, and one more about preserving auteur style over what the material is desperately crying out for. if there were plenty of other epics already telling this story, i might think a small-focus movie like this to be fine, but as there arent loads about the subject, it seemed like a missed opportunity.

ha - i loved the 80s music. it was actually one of the easiest things to like about the film. he has a good ear for music.... though there WAS something rather 80s-arthouse about the film as a whole (same dated feel i get from watching something like the double life of veronique these days)

i found myself stuck between frustration that a subject like this DID deserve the big epic treatment and trying to see the reason for why hou wouldnt take that approach.

Well he is more interested in the interior life - the life of family houses and rooms, the life of a deaf mute - than what is happening more widely. Thinking more again you see that table where the father is eating, and the film pretty much ends with that scene of the eldest surviving the turbulent times. There he is, eating...Somewhat analogous to having the grandmother die at the end of A Time to Live..., the eldest outliving her son/daughter (can't remember which side she is on).

might double feature cute girl and the puppetmaster next weekend, haven't seen either.

There's been talk in All Purpose NYC ILX Film Snob Thread

I'm watching Good Men, Good Women for the first time. Its fucking w/space and time is unexpected!

brand new print of Flowers of Shanghai on the big screen in Queens last night, stunning reds and golds, glow from the gas lamps too. This retro will tour to Berkeley and presumably elsewhere.

http://www.fandor.com/keyframe/daily-also-like-life-the-films-of-hou-hsiao-hsien

Was it sold out?

close if not

Looked sold out tonight too, for supposedly the sole extant subtitled print of the puppetmaster

Yesterday I saw A Summer at Grandpa's (1984), which is ultimately a pretty sobering portrait of two sibs (aged ten and six, approximately) learning a lot about adults. It's not much like Meatballs even though there are pants-wetting and hemorrhoid scenes.

flowers is the only movie i've ever felt the need to watch twice in a row (well, with a night's sleep in between viewings).

Checked the "Sing-Song Girls of Shanghai" out from the library; ordered DVD copy of "Flowers" to rewatch--I will understand this movie eventually.

Saw "Three Times" on Sunday--wasn't as impressive as the first two ("Flowers" & "Puppetmaster").

Gonna miss "Millennium Mambo" this Friday as have tix for the Replacements . . . not too upset as I hear it is similar to the last of the Three Times. Ordered it on Netflix though to try and keep up with the programming.

I really liked Millenium Mambo. One of his best of the post-Flowers ones, imo. There are some really beautiful pictures of snow...

I'm so jealous of this retro.

wb v. plain

I'm really enjoying reading the novel that "Flowers" was based on--but its making me want to stay inside reading all day as the rain falls outside.

Question: were they smoking some low grade opium in those days, or was everyone just an addict? In the book they have some wine with lunch, then smoke some opium to relax, then take a nap before arranging a drinking party. Nice life!

You know, I forgot until I looked at the credits of Flowers that that's Tony Leung in the lead. (Hair.)

David Bordwell on "cheerful staging" in the early films:

http://www.davidbordwell.net/books/figures_intro.php?ss=4

this thread is reminded me i need to rewatch yang's "the terrorizers" (preferably alone as my ex's boredom ruined the first viewing)

i only mentioned MOL as it was also a tv project IIRC but i think the thing with the assassin is that the image is very naked. or made to seem very naked (ive read some reviews since seeing it comment on it being like a painting come to life but i would say its more just like a digital photograph come to life, which im not sure really suits it as its meant to be a period piece). made me think of inland empire actually. i know the lighting was all natural, but idk, i like a bit of artifice, so maybe its just personal preference (i feel a bit like QT complaining about digital projection being TV, but i think its about the choices made in the shooting and the lighting, not the projection).

i still need to watch berlin alexanderplatz.

its more just like a digital photograph come to life, which im not sure really suits it as its meant to be a period piece

Period piece needn't mean you sould exclude digital.

Some of the colours felt oversaturated.

I think this film's status as a 'period film' is quite complex (especially when there are fantasy elements in play) - it has the feel of a retold childhood fable, a remembrance of a story rather than the story itself, and so the brightness of the colours seems an appropriate way of expressing memory, and wonderment.

So, this is a masterpiece! Reminded me a lot of Amour Fou in it's depiction of a rotten, codified, millieu. Also, reading up on the history behind it, the whole thin is based on fact, it seems. It's really not that complicated.

http://www.davidbordwell.net/blog/2016/06/06/hou-hsiao-hsien-film-culture-finally-comes-through/

Daughter of the Nile has a 30th anniversary 4K restoration opening in NY this week

https://quadcinema.com/film/daughter-of-the-nile/

watched tai pei story last week; every shot is gorgeous

I really liked The Puppetmaster. It was definitely made more interesting for me by the mixing of casual narration in voice-over and interview scenes with the historical storytelling. The “almost like life” puppet show scenes and opera scenes were also mesmerizing. Didn’t think the narrative was confusing at all (unlike The Assassin). Can relate to what was said above about his films being delicate/miniaturized, the preference for mid- and long-range shots really add emotional distance to the events of the stories

enjoyed reading this thread

I used the search function to find this thread, was disappointed to realize I posted this to ILF. surprising to me that there's no Hou Hsiao-Hsien thread on ILE

I've seen The Assassin twice now, I'm still not sure I really understand it, but it is a beautiful film

Only saw the one time when it came out but would like to see again. Where is it streaming? Only thing I see available is Daughter of the Nile on Kanopy. Actually just watched Three Times about a week ago on Mubi and it was incredible.

Seems like I missed whole Metrograph retro and don’t think I can get there tomorrow for the last day.

I want to see Three Times again, I remember liking it the first time, especially the 1966 sequence. haven't seen Daughter of the Nile yet. The Assassin is available on netflix dvd. the quality of the dvd I rented this time was superior (I thought) to that I saw initially

I know dvds are not something most people consider watching today, but without them, at least for the moment, I think viewers are missing out on a lot of great classic films

Yeah, I know I am.

The Assassin seems like a very different film to me this time. wondering what it will feel like again in 5 years

I can recommend googling the names of characters in The Assassin. Some of them are historical characters, whose stories don't end there.

Figuring out subs for French restoration of the 'HHH: A Portrait of Hou Hsiao-Hsien' documentary. Love this segement: pic.twitter.com/bd5f13eZOk

— mmcc (@mattmccrac) August 17, 2022

Having completed the subtitle project and working now on packaging them and the video together properly, please enjoy Hou Hsiao-hsien's magnificent singing at KTV.

"Cheers friends, let it all out!"https://t.co/6rqqjCGJuc pic.twitter.com/tBrtsxr2LM

— mmcc (@mattmccrac) August 2, 2023

https://variety.com/2023/film/news/hou-hsiao-hsien-taiwan-director-retirement-1235768092/

that's a loss but he seems to be doing what's best for his health and i hope he has a long happy retirement

Hope this sad news inspires a push to finally get decent physical media editions of things like Puppetmaster and City of Sadness out there.

The Assassin was a hell of a film to go out on.

https://www.taiwanplus.com/shows/culture/between-the-tides-taiwans-new-wave-classics-and-beyond

dust in the wind (and other non-HHH classics) available for streaming here

"Before he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, he had often shared with us that his love for films has become purer."

Thank you so much for your films, Hou.