Quentin Tarantino usually takes care of things with his Director retirement plans for headlines. Today, however, we receive different news: the Taiwanese filmmaker Hou Hsiao-Hsien is saying goodbye to his profession as a director and screenwriter. He also worked as a producer and actor.
As Variety reports, the reason for Hou’s retirement is Alzheimer’s disease, which has worsened in recent years. With this, a big name is leaving the stage of world cinema. Over the course of his career spanning almost four decades, the director has… created many masterpieces. We would like to recommend five of them to you.
Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s cinema is full of powerful, intimate and poetic images about people and history
The first film by Hou Hsiao-Hsien that you should definitely bookmark is 1985’s Tales of a Distant Childhood: an epic drama that tells the story of a family that moves from mainland China to Taiwan in 1948 and tries to find a life to build existence. Hou weaves them together masterfully social and political upheavals with an intimate family portrait.
Central Motion Pictures/Yi Fu Films
Stories of a distant childhood
Four years later, Hou brought the no less touching The City of Sadness to the cinema. Again it’s about a family, one formative time in Taiwanese history experienced after the Second World War. Specifically, we follow four brothers who are looking for their place in life. And once again it is calm, attentive shots with which Hou, as so often in his films, develops a hypnotic pull.
One of the strongest films in this regard is the 1998 Flowers of Shanghai, which takes us into the dreamy rooms of a brothel in the late 19th century. Hou helps here every shot a painting, in which you can lose yourself for hours. Infinite beauty, infinite pain: With this poetic series of images he has created a very special, unique film.
From the abysmal nightmare to the wuxia epic: Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s cinema knows no boundaries
Things are much wilder in his dizzying Millennium Mambo from 2001, which was recently released in German cinemas in a restored version and tells the story of a young woman who finds herself in a toxic relationship. Just like Hou’s camera, she gets lost in blurry night imageswhich evade any sense of space and time – an eternal whirlpool into the abyss.
Rapid Eye Movies
Millennium Mambo
In 2015, Hou’s last film conquered the big screen: The Assassin, which was the Wuxia cinema revive in breathtaking images has let. Between furious battles and overwhelming nature shots, one of the greatest silent epics of recent years is created. You can currently even stream the film: The Assassin is in the Arte media library until April 7, 2024.
There are many other films in Hou’s oeuvre that are worth a look. No matter where you start, it’s important that you take the time to get involved with the films. Hou’s cinema often renounces conventional narrative. Instead, he explores his characters and stories through moods that arise from careful imagery and an unusual narrative rhythm
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