Since his emergence two decades ago as a director, Hou Hsiao-Hsien has been in the forefront of the New Taiwanese Cinema and contemporary Asian cinema. A graduate of Taiwan's National Art Academy, Hou worked his way up through the film industry serving first as a continuity person, then a scriptwriter, and finally an assistant to several established directors. He went on to direct a major body of work and to produce movies by such key figures as Edward Yang and the acclaimed Chinese director Zhang Yimou. Now widely recognized as a modern master of the cinema, Hou has never received commercial release for his work in North America. The Walker Art Center series Hou Hsiao-Hsien: Master of Mise-en-Scène, screened Thursday, April 20, through Friday, April 28, is dedicated to redressing this extraordinary neglect and focuses on three films by one of the greatest of contemporary directors. Hou was voted Director of the Decade in the First Annual Village Voice Critics Poll (1999), and Flowers of Shanghai was named film of the year by six Voice critics. Susan Sontag named both The Puppetmaster and Goodbye South, Goodbye among the 10 best films of the 1990s in Artforum. All screenings take place in the Walker Auditorium. Except where noted, tickets for the screenings are $6 ($3 Walker members). THURSDAY, APRIL 20, 7:30 PM FREE
A Portrait of Hou Hsiao-Hsien (Cinema de Notre Temps: Hou Hsiao-Hsien)
Directed by Olivier Assayas
An excellent introduction to the art of Hou Hsiao-Hsien, this documentary by French critic-director Olivier Assayas (Late August, Early September) includes scenes from Hou's major films as well as interviews with his colleagues and with younger directors whom he has inspired. In French and Taiwanese with English subtitles. 1997, Taiwan/France, 90 minutes. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 26, 7 PM
The Puppetmaster (Hsimeng Jensheng)
Directed by Hou Hsiao-Hsien
Based on the memoirs of the celebrated Chinese puppeteer Li Tien-lu, The Puppetmaster consists of meticulously composed tableaux that creatively interweave reenactments of the fateful shifts in his life and segments with Li himself serving as narrator. The portrait that emerges captures both the tragic sweep of Taiwan's fate throughout much of the 20th century and the puppeteer's own hardships attached to the strings of that history. In Mandarin and Taiwanese with English subtitles. 1993, Taiwan, 142 minutes. THURSDAY, APRIL 27, 7 PM
Goodbye South, Goodbye (Nanguo Zaijan, Nanguo)
Directed by Hou Hsiao-Hsien
A vivid portrait of Taiwan's "Generation X." Goodbye South, Goodbye centers on a group of petty criminals, modern-day gangsters and their molls, whose ambitions to succeed are blunted by an aimlessness that seems almost universal. As Hou tracks the no-so-quiet desperation of his cell-phone-addicted, fast-living characters, his signature long takes and elaborate visual design give way to an edgier cinematic style and a hard-rock sound track. In Taiwanese with English subtitles. 1996, Taiwan/Japan, 116 minutes. FRIDAY, APRIL 28, 7 PM
Flowers of Shanghai (Hai Shan Hua)
Directed by Hou Hsiao-Hsien
Breaking with his focus on the social history of modern Taiwan, Hou enters the world of late 19th-century Shanghai to create a stunning portrait of the complex social network surrounding the so-called "flower houses" or upscale brothels in the British sector of the city. Rivaling Kubrick's Barry Lyndon in the richness of its candlelit interiors and the brilliance of its cinematography, Flowers of Shanghai garnered major festival prizes and almost universal critical acclaim. "…Beautiful, tantalizingly oblique, and thoroughly hypnotic," says Rob Nelson of City Pages. In Mandarin with English subtitles. 1998, Taiwan/Japan, 124 minutes.
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