Hou Hsiao-hsien

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Michael Kerpan
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Re: Hou Hsiao-hsien

#226 Post by Michael Kerpan » Tue Jan 06, 2015 1:16 pm

I thought both films in the HHH Blu set looked great -- probably better (on their own terms) than the 35mm prints recently screened (no burned in subs for these). A big improvement over the versions in HHH's long-ago (self-released) DVD box set.

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StevenJ0001
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Re: Hou Hsiao-hsien

#227 Post by StevenJ0001 » Tue Jan 06, 2015 4:51 pm

Michael Kerpan wrote:I thought both films in the HHH Blu set looked great -- probably better (on their own terms) than the 35mm prints recently screened (no burned in subs for these). A big improvement over the versions in HHH's long-ago (self-released) DVD box set.
Excellent news--thanks Michael!

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Re: Hou Hsiao-hsien

#228 Post by jindianajonz » Sun Jan 11, 2015 10:11 pm

Anyone have problems with chapters skipping on the discs in the Sino movie box? I've had problems with Dust in the Wind and (I think) Boys from Fengkuei. I've found that if I pause in the second half of the film, the disc will start skipping (as if I'm spamming the Next Chapter button on the remote) until it goes back to the title menu. The same thing happens when I start the movie up again and try to skip chapters to where I left off- even if I stop tapping the button, the disc keeps skipping ahead until it reaches the end. Anyone have a workaround?

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Re: Hou Hsiao-hsien

#229 Post by Michael Kerpan » Mon Jan 12, 2015 11:27 am

I didn't have this problem with the first edition of this set (bought eons ago).

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Re: Hou Hsiao-hsien

#230 Post by artfilmfan » Mon Jan 12, 2015 11:22 pm

No chapter skipping issue with my first-edition set, either.

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Re: Hou Hsiao-hsien

#231 Post by jguitar » Thu Feb 12, 2015 4:37 pm

The Hou Hsiao-Hsien retrospective is in Vancouver, BC now. In my enthusiasm to see all of these on the big screen, I bought tickets in advance. Now, it turns out, I have a series of music performances (I'm stepping in for someone who can't continue) that will keep me from going to several of these. The Pacific Cinematheque can't issue refunds, but I can assign my tickets to another person. The first one is for tomorrow, February 12th for the double feature of A Time to Live and a Time to Die and Taipei Story, starting at 6:30. I have one ticket, and if you want it, it's yours. Just PM me, first come first served. You don't need to pay me for the ticket -- this will be like me buying you a drink in a bar. Other dates will follow shortly.

By the way, I saw City of Sadness this past Sunday. It made a lot more sense on the second viewing! I thought the print looked in rougher shape than I remember several years ago; audio, too. But what a magnificent film.

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Re: Hou Hsiao-hsien

#232 Post by Michael Kerpan » Thu Feb 12, 2015 6:01 pm

I suspect that City of Sadness is one of those films that just keeps getting better and better with repeated viewings...

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Re: Hou Hsiao-hsien

#233 Post by jindianajonz » Sun Feb 22, 2015 6:32 pm

Has anyone seen this Korean Hou box set? It apparently has english subtitles on The Puppetmaster, though it also lists the discs as being Full Screen. Still, I'm curious as to how it stacks up against the other releases of the Puppetmaster, none of which seem to be of high quality.

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Re: Hou Hsiao-hsien

#234 Post by Raymond Marble » Thu Mar 19, 2015 11:33 pm

The Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago recently posted (most) of its calendar for the Hou series, and man, am I bummed out about it. I live in St. Louis, and was hoping to go up for a weekend and see as many films as possible. That's not to be--they're only showing one movie at a time, and for the most part it isn't the really hard to see stuff, either. For example, I absolutely would be there if they have City of Sadness, but they don't. The only films they're showing of his I haven't already seen are Dust in the Wind and A Time to Live and a Time to Die. Both are from film prints, at least; I might be able to make it up to see one or the other, but not both. (Hell, I'd like to see as many as I can, including ones I've seen before, but there's just no way for me to do it.) Maybe I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up about this, as the way it's programmed isn't terribly surprising or breaking in precedent with how it's been done in the other cities this tour has played so far (how come the recent stops, such as Seattle, have only been playing a few of his films, and not the aforementioned tough-to-see ones?), but I've been looking forward to this for months now, and can't help but feel majorly let down.

And like many Americans, the only way I've ever seen The Puppetmaster is from the much-criticized Fox Lorber disc. As of this writing, the Siskel doesn't have much information about that screening posted yet--it looks like it's only going to screen once, and it may or may not be from a film print. Though I'd love to see it in its intended aspect ratio, do I really want to drive 11 hours round trip to see something other than a film print?

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Re: Hou Hsiao-hsien

#235 Post by The Fanciful Norwegian » Fri Mar 20, 2015 3:55 am

The full retrospective just wrapped up in Vancouver, so it hasn't disappeared. Not sure which of the upcoming locations will be showing the full retrospective, since most of the venues involved haven't put up their schedules yet. I saw the six-film mini-retrospective in Houston (with Chu T'ien-wen in attendance!) and one of the organizers (who said they didn't attempt to secure the full retrospective) told me they weren't able to pick and choose. Presumably any city not screening the full lineup will be showing the same six films as Houston/Seattle/Chicago et al., which were selected by Richard Suchenski with some criteria I'm not privy to. Everything is on 35mm and Good Men, Good Women and Flowers of Shanghai are new prints. I was also disappointed not to see A City of Sadness—plus Goodbye South, Goodbye (possibly my favorite film of all time) and Daughter of the Nile (the one Hou film not on DVD anywhere)—but I didn't regret making the trek from Austin. Of course the scheduling in Houston was more reasonable than what Chicago will be getting, since all six films were shown within the space of two consecutive weekends.

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Re: Hou Hsiao-hsien

#236 Post by StevenJ0001 » Fri Mar 20, 2015 11:08 am

I'm glad this thread was bumped because it made me check again to see if this retrospective was coming to LA--which it is! Last time I checked I didn't see LA listed. Very excited! \:D/

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Re: Hou Hsiao-hsien

#237 Post by jindianajonz » Fri Mar 20, 2015 2:18 pm

They added San Diego as well. I'm hoping to fly out to Chicago for Puppetmaster, but I'm really keeping my fingers crossed that City of Sadness will play at one of the two SoCal locations

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Re: Hou Hsiao-hsien

#238 Post by StevenJ0001 » Fri Mar 20, 2015 4:37 pm

jindianajonz wrote:They added San Diego as well. I'm hoping to fly out to Chicago for Puppetmaster, but I'm really keeping my fingers crossed that City of Sadness will play at one of the two SoCal locations
I am too! Here is UCLA's program, but I can't find the programs for the other two LA venues yet (Puppetmaster is playing at UCLA but not City of Sadness).

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Re: Hou Hsiao-hsien

#239 Post by The Fanciful Norwegian » Fri Mar 20, 2015 5:04 pm

Flowers of Shanghai is playing at REDCAT on May 4th. This is the last film event on their website for the moment, so check back later to see if they're showing anything else from the series. But only two films are unaccounted for (A City of Sadness and Millennium Mambo) and my bet is they'll both be at the Cinematheque.
Last edited by The Fanciful Norwegian on Fri Mar 20, 2015 5:33 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: Hou Hsiao-hsien

#240 Post by StevenJ0001 » Fri Mar 20, 2015 5:30 pm

The Fanciful Norwegian wrote:Flowers of Shanghai is playing at REDCAT on May 4th. This is the last film event on their website for the moment, so check back later to see if they're showing anything else from the series.
Thanks!!

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Re: Hou Hsiao-hsien

#241 Post by Raymond Marble » Sun Apr 12, 2015 1:38 am

If anyone else is of the Midwestern persuasion, it looks like Cleveland is getting the full retrospective (odd, given that Chicago didn't), though it's spread out over April, May, and June, and across a couple of venues. They're showing A City of Sadness once, for free, and it's on a day that's going to make it hard for me to go. I'm hoping I can figure out a way to make it work, though, as that was the one film I was most hoping to catch while this retrospective is touring.

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Re: Hou Hsiao-hsien

#242 Post by Northside777 » Mon Apr 13, 2015 7:50 pm

Raymond Marble wrote:If anyone else is of the Midwestern persuasion, it looks like Cleveland is getting the full retrospective (odd, given that Chicago didn't), though it's spread out over April, May, and June, and across a couple of venues. They're showing A City of Sadness once, for free, and it's on a day that's going to make it hard for me to go. I'm hoping I can figure out a way to make it work, though, as that was the one film I was most hoping to catch while this retrospective is touring.
Hello from Chicago. I came across your posts today and wanted to provide an update.

The Siskel is showing The Puppetmaster at 3pm (CST) on Saturday May 2.

The retrospective organizer Richard Suchenski will deliver a 20 minute lecture at 3pm, followed immediately by the movie.

The Siskel just posted the information about this today (Monday, April 13).

I saw Time To Live, Time To Die this past Saturday (4/11/15). If anyone has the opportunity to see it, do so. No exaggeration to say it compares favorably with Ozu's Tokyo Story.

Very disappointing that City Of Sadness and Goodbye South Goodbye will not be showing here in Chicago.

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Re: Hou Hsiao-hsien

#243 Post by Northside777 » Tue Apr 14, 2015 4:04 pm

Because Hou films contain such carefully composed and framed camera shots, I was curious about the cinematographers on his films. Specifically, whether he had used the same cinematographer or a variety of cinematographers on his films.

Via Wikipedia and IMDB, these are the cinematographers listed for his films:

Cute Girl (1980) Chen Kunhou
Cheerful Wind (1981) Chen Kunhou
The Green Grass Of Home (1982) Chen Kunhou
The Boys From Fengkuei (1983) Chen Kunhou
A Summer At Grandpa's (1984) Chen Kunhou
Time To Live,Time To Die (1985) Mark Lee Ping Bin
Dust In The Wind (1986) Mark Lee Ping Bin
Daughter Of The Nile (1987) Chen Huai-en
City Of Sadness (1989) Chen Huai-en
The Puppetmaster (1993) Mark Lee Ping Bin
Good Men, Good Women (1995) Chen Huai-en
Goodbye South, Goodbye (1996) Mark Lee Ping Bin and Chen Huai-en
Flowers Of Shanghai (1998) Mark Lee Ping Bin
Millennium Mambo (2001) Mark Lee Ping Bin
Café Lumiere (2003) Mark Lee Ping Bin
Three Times (2005) Mark Lee Ping Bin
Flight Of The Red Balloon (2008) Mark Lee Ping Bin

Hou worked with cinematographer Mark Lee Ping Bin on nine of his twelve films released between 1985 and 2008.
Last edited by Northside777 on Thu Apr 16, 2015 2:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Hou Hsiao-hsien

#244 Post by Raymond Marble » Thu Apr 16, 2015 12:10 pm

Northside777 wrote:Because Hou films contain such carefully composed and framed camera shots, I was curious about the cinematographers on his films. Specifically, whether he had used the same cinematographer or a variety of cinematographers on his films.

Via Wikipedia and IMDB, these are the cinematographers listed for his films:

The Boys From Fengkuei (1983) Chen Kunhou
A Summer At Grandpa's (1984) Chen Kunhou
Time To Live,Time To Die (1985) Mark Lee Ping Bin
Dust In The Wind (1986) Mark Lee Ping Bin
Daughter Of The Nile (1987) Chen Huai-en
City Of Sadness (1989) Chen Huai-en
The Puppetmaster (1993) Mark Lee Ping Bin
Good Men, Good Women (1995) Chen Huai-en
Goodbye South, Goodbye (1996) Mark Lee Ping Bin and Chen Huai-en
Flowers Of Shanghai (1998) Mark Lee Ping Bin
Millennium Mambo (2001) Mark Lee Ping Bin
Café Lumiere (2003) Mark Lee Ping Bin
Three Times (2005) Mark Lee Ping Bin
Flight Of The Red Balloon (2008) Mark Lee Ping Bin

Hou worked with cinematographer Mark Lee Ping Bin on nine of his fourteen films released between 1983 and 2008.
I'm of the opinion that Mark Lee Ping-bin is one of the best cinematographers we have right now. In addition to the work he's done with Hou, he shot the parts of In the Mood for Love that Chris Doyle didn't do, he shot Tran Anh Hung's Norwegian Wood (and the cinematography is the best thing about that movie, excepting maybe the music), he shot Kore-eda Hirokazu's underrated Air Doll. I like him a lot.

Meanwhile, it was announced a few hours ago that the new Hou film, The Assassin, is playing at Cannes, which is not surprising, but good news all the same. I've been on a serious Hou kick for the duration of 2015 so far; maybe if I'm lucky I can see The Assassin by the end of the calendar year. (Alas, I'm not going to Cannes this year...)

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Re: Hou Hsiao-hsien

#245 Post by Michael Kerpan » Thu Apr 16, 2015 12:23 pm

For the sake of completeness, I would note that Chen Kunhou was also cinematographer for Cute Girl (Lovable You), Cheerful Wind, and Green Green Grass of Home.

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Re: Hou Hsiao-hsien

#246 Post by jindianajonz » Sun Apr 26, 2015 5:38 pm

jindianajonz wrote:They added San Diego as well. I'm hoping to fly out to Chicago for Puppetmaster, but I'm really keeping my fingers crossed that City of Sadness will play at one of the two SoCal locations
Looks like I'm in luck, City of Sadness is playing at the Aero Theater on May 16th

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Re: Hou Hsiao-hsien

#247 Post by jindianajonz » Sat May 02, 2015 8:59 pm

I just got back from The Puppetmaster screening in Chicago. There was a pretty lengthy lecture beforehand, as well as a Q&A with the gentleman who out this retrospective together. There wasn't too much info that wasn't already well known, but be did emphasize how difficult it was to get this film screened. It's a personal favorite of his, and he held back the retrospective for a year and had to get Hou to intervene in order to show it. He couldn't comment too much on the rights issues, but did mention that from a preservationists standpoint, steps are being taken to ensure that this film will be protected for posterity even if it is unlikely that the rights will ever be sorted out.

Very excited that I got to see this, and despite the subpar picture quality I would encourage everybody to seek it out while it is showing. During the Q&A Suchenski made a comment that the physical film had the darkest print he had ever seen, and there's a special quality to the way a projector bulb opens it up, so it's well worth seeing this last remaining English subbed print.

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Re: Hou Hsiao-hsien

#248 Post by Michael Kerpan » Sat May 02, 2015 10:54 pm

The print of Puppetmaster looked _infinitely_ better than the misbegotten US DVD. ;-}

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Re: Hou Hsiao-hsien

#249 Post by hearthesilence » Sat May 02, 2015 11:18 pm

Ridiculous about the rights situation - aren't there allegations that organized crime was involved in the financing (and therefore ownership) in a large number of films in Taiwan, including landmarks such as The Puppetmaster?

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Re: Hou Hsiao-hsien

#250 Post by jindianajonz » Sat May 02, 2015 11:50 pm

Michael Kerpan wrote:The print of Puppetmaster looked _infinitely_ better than the misbegotten US DVD. ;-}
I haven't seen it beyond Dvdbeaver caps, but Suchenski said it may be the worst DVD he's ever seen. It was pretty disappointing when he said home video rights are stonewalled, since this will likely be the only time I can see this film in decent quality. He mentioned that they tried to track down other subbed prints, but they all seem to have been destroyed in the last two decades. His comment about taking steps at preservation was in response to a question about whether the negative or other materials exist, so that was heartening.

Re: the rights, he said he couldn't get into specifics, but did say it was common for films released after the ending of Martial Law and relative opening of the island in the late 80s through the early 90s to have really tangled rights issues. He also stated that rights holders often don't have any interest in seeing films released. I had assumed that the copyright laws of the time were untested and full of holes, but organized crime taking advantage of newly opened markets could fit that description as well.

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