Hou Hsiao-hsien

Discussion and info on people in film, ranging from directors to actors to cinematographers to writers.
Post Reply
Message
Author
User avatar
Trees
Joined: Sun Sep 27, 2015 4:04 pm

Re: Hou Hsiao-hsien

#301 Post by Trees » Wed Dec 23, 2015 3:57 pm

Image

Was this shot in "Dust in the Wind" a little tribute to Ozu? :D :wink:

User avatar
jindianajonz
Jindiana Jonz Abrams
Joined: Wed Oct 12, 2011 8:11 pm

Re: Hou Hsiao-hsien

#302 Post by jindianajonz » Wed Dec 23, 2015 5:04 pm

I can't recall where, but I remember seeing something about Hou not even being aware of Ozu's films until much later on (Perhaps around Café Lumiere, which was commissioned as a tribute to Ozu?) and the similarities in their styles was coincidental.

EDIT: I'm mistaken, Hou found Ozu's work (after critics began telling him how similar they were) in the mid 1980s

User avatar
Trees
Joined: Sun Sep 27, 2015 4:04 pm

Re: Hou Hsiao-hsien

#303 Post by Trees » Wed Dec 23, 2015 5:18 pm

jindianajonz wrote:in the mid 1980s
Haha. HHH dropping E!
The Taiwanese director researches his projects meticulously. For his 2001 feature, Millennium Mambo, largely set in the hyper-charged twilight world of the Taipei rave scene, he threw himself into youth culture. The distinguished auteur hung out at the local discos and even experimented with ecstasy. He doesn't think it is a drug for his generation. "It relaxes you," he muses. "Young people have many, many pressures. When they take it, they can open their minds, relax and get rid of all these pressures. But I don't have these pressures.
\:D/

User avatar
Michael Kerpan
Spelling Bee Champeen
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 1:20 pm
Location: New England
Contact:

Re: Hou Hsiao-hsien

#304 Post by Michael Kerpan » Wed Dec 23, 2015 5:26 pm

Actually he has said he saw one Ozu film fairly early (Autumn Afternoon) and didn't think much of it at the time. He was more favorably impressed by I Was Born But. It seems he first became reasonably familiar with Ozu's work when he went to Europe to promote Time to Live, Time to Die.

User avatar
FakeBonanza
Joined: Sun Dec 02, 2012 10:35 pm

Re: Hou Hsiao-hsien

#305 Post by FakeBonanza » Wed Dec 23, 2015 6:41 pm

Michael Kerpan wrote:Actually he has said he saw one Ozu film fairly early (Autumn Afternoon) and didn't think much of it at the time. He was more favorably impressed by I Was Born But. It seems he first became reasonably familiar with Ozu's work when he went to Europe to promote Time to Live, Time to Die.
If I'm not mistaken, he said more specifically that he found An Autumn Afternoon to be boring (at least upon his initial viewing). It's an interesting complaint given that Hou's films, like Ozu's, are too often accused of being "slow". That being said, having some understanding of Hou's personalty after reading a number of interviews, I wasn't at all surprised when he said he reacted more favourably to I Was Born But....

alfons416
Joined: Sat Apr 29, 2006 5:39 am

Re: Hou Hsiao-hsien

#306 Post by alfons416 » Thu Jan 07, 2016 10:59 am

anyone bought this?

http://www.yesasia.com/us/taiwan-new-wa ... /info.html

looks really nice but quite expensive. Would like ro see a review/screenshots.

User avatar
The Fanciful Norwegian
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 2:24 pm
Location: Teegeeack

Re: Hou Hsiao-hsien

#307 Post by The Fanciful Norwegian » Thu Jan 07, 2016 12:22 pm

I have it on preorder from JSDVD, but it hasn't actually been released yet despite the 12/31 date on YesAsia (JSDVD says the release is on the 19th).

AisleSeat
Joined: Thu Jul 24, 2008 6:16 pm
Location: Arlington, VA

Re: Hou Hsiao-hsien

#308 Post by AisleSeat » Mon Jan 11, 2016 1:50 pm

The Puppetmaster, A Summer At Grandpa's, and The Boys from Fengkuei can be viewed online or downloaded here.

mff
Joined: Sat Aug 22, 2015 5:14 pm

Re: Hou Hsiao-hsien

#309 Post by mff » Mon Jan 18, 2016 8:22 am

Is it worth buying the book by Richard Suchenski, even after reading the one by James Udden? I know that some of the posters here seem to like the book by Suchenski, but how does it compare to the one by Udden? Does he, or any of the other contributors, have more to say about films like Good men, Good women, Goodbye South, Goodbye, Millennium Mambo, Cafe Lumiere and Flight of the Red Balloon? James Udden didn't really bother to write anything in depth about these films, which I thought was disappointing.

Raymond Marble
Joined: Sat Mar 29, 2014 8:48 pm

Re: Hou Hsiao-hsien

#310 Post by Raymond Marble » Mon Jan 18, 2016 12:33 pm

mff wrote:Is it worth buying the book by Richard Suchenski, even after reading the one by James Udden? I know that some of the posters here seem to like the book by Suchenski, but how does it compare to the one by Udden? Does he, or any of the other contributors, have more to say about films like Good men, Good women, Goodbye South, Goodbye, Millennium Mambo, Cafe Lumiere and Flight of the Red Balloon? James Udden didn't really bother to write anything in depth about these films, which I thought was disappointing.
I haven't read James Udden's book, so I'll be no help in comparing the two. I was quite impressed with Richard Suchenski's, though--I'd go so far as to say it's the best academic study of a filmmaker I've read in probably years--but that said, it doesn't ever get too in depth about any of the films you list above, with the possible exception of Café Lumiere, which has an essay more or less devoted to it written by Wen Tien-hsiang. There's some incidental stuff about Good Men, Good Women and Goodbye South, Goodbye, but not much in the way of deep analysis, and very little / close to nothing about Millennium Mambo or Flight of the Red Balloon, if I remember correctly.

User avatar
whaleallright
Joined: Sun Sep 25, 2005 12:56 am

Re: Hou Hsiao-hsien

#311 Post by whaleallright » Mon Jan 18, 2016 7:29 pm

I would say the two books are entirely complimentary, scarcely redundant at all!

Calvin
Joined: Sun Apr 10, 2011 11:12 am

Re: Hou Hsiao-hsien

#312 Post by Calvin » Sun Feb 07, 2016 9:41 am

The TFI have uploaded a before/after comparison for their restoration of Daughter of the Nile

User avatar
Michael Kerpan
Spelling Bee Champeen
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 1:20 pm
Location: New England
Contact:

Re: Hou Hsiao-hsien

#313 Post by Michael Kerpan » Sun Feb 07, 2016 3:33 pm

Calvin wrote:The TFI have uploaded a before/after comparison for their restoration of Daughter of the Nile
This film tends to get dismissed, even by some HHH fans, but I always liked it. Some similarities to the more polished Millennium Mambo.

User avatar
Trees
Joined: Sun Sep 27, 2015 4:04 pm

Re: Hou Hsiao-hsien

#314 Post by Trees » Mon Feb 08, 2016 12:39 am

Calvin wrote:The TFI have uploaded a before/after comparison for their restoration of Daughter of the Nile
Are home video release plans in place for this restoration?

beamish13
Joined: Sun Oct 14, 2007 5:31 am

Re: Hou Hsiao-hsien

#315 Post by beamish13 » Mon Feb 08, 2016 5:58 pm

God, Daughter of the Nile is so wonderful. The scenes with the exasperated night school teacher and the protagonist's grandfather (Li Tian-lu, star and muse to Hou Hsiao-Hsien) are among the funniest in his entire oeuvre.

User avatar
perkizitore
Joined: Thu Jul 10, 2008 3:29 pm
Location: OOP is the only answer

Re: Hou Hsiao-hsien

#316 Post by perkizitore » Thu Feb 18, 2016 10:46 pm


User avatar
zedz
Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 7:24 pm

Re: Hou Hsiao-hsien

#317 Post by zedz » Thu Feb 18, 2016 11:19 pm

Shame the Boys from Fengkuei restoration is only SD, but it may well pop up on Blu somewhere else. The earlier films are minor and to my knowledge have always looked mediocre on DVD, so this could well be the best you'll ever see them.

It looks like you can't purchase the set until it's officially released next week, but if you're going to do so, don't overlook some of Cinematek's other superb releases, such as the Henri Storck and Andre Delvaus collections or the 1927-1937 Avant Garde 2-disc set.

User avatar
whaleallright
Joined: Sun Sep 25, 2005 12:56 am

Re: Hou Hsiao-hsien

#318 Post by whaleallright » Fri Feb 19, 2016 3:39 am

I wouldn't call Green, Green Grass of Home minor. It's got some unfortunate compromises with the commercial genre Hou was working in at the time (including some stilted musical numbers), but in terms of felicities of narrative form, staging, editing, and so on, it's almost the equal of Boys from Fengkeui.

As for Cinematek, I'll put a word in for their DVD of Albert Capellani's The Red Lantern with Alla Nazimova, which features copious extras, mostly early-20th-century cinematic chinoiserie: http://www.cinematek.be/?node=30&dvd_id ... y=8&lng=en" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Zot!
Joined: Wed Jan 20, 2010 12:09 am

Re: Hou Hsiao-hsien

#319 Post by Zot! » Fri Feb 19, 2016 2:02 pm

Cool! I don't know how Hou suddenly became everyboy's darling, but I'm not going to complain if it means releases like this. Since these are noted as Belgian restorations, I wonder if they will be exclusive. I assume they will have English subs?

User avatar
zedz
Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 7:24 pm

Re: Hou Hsiao-hsien

#320 Post by zedz » Fri Feb 19, 2016 3:40 pm

whaleallright wrote:I wouldn't call Green, Green Grass of Home minor. It's got some unfortunate compromises with the commercial genre Hou was working in at the time (including some stilted musical numbers), but in terms of felicities of narrative form, staging, editing, and so on, it's almost the equal of Boys from Fengkeui.

As for Cinematek, I'll put a word in for their DVD of Albert Capellani's The Red Lantern with Alla Nazimova, which features copious extras, mostly early-20th-century cinematic chinoiserie: http://www.cinematek.be/?node=30&dvd_id ... y=8&lng=en" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Well, I'm glad you like it but I think you're selling Boys from Fengkuei way, way short. Green, Green Grass of Home is, if you put on your rose-coloured auteurist glasses and squint real hard, maybe half as good as the worst film he made afterwards: a generic film with flashes of talent, whereas The Boys from Fengkuei is the first mature, personal film of a great filmmaker. If those early works don't count as minor in comparison to what was to follow, I don't know what would!

User avatar
whaleallright
Joined: Sun Sep 25, 2005 12:56 am

Re: Hou Hsiao-hsien

#321 Post by whaleallright » Fri Feb 19, 2016 7:47 pm

I'll agree to disagree about this, though I'd suggest that purely in terms of pacing, narrative structure, staging, composition, etc., there's at least as much to admire in Green, Green Grass of Home as in the rather academic Cafe Lumiere and the almost anonymous Red Balloon. I certainly wouldn't call it generic, since while it indulges in some very un-Hou-like soft-focus close-ups of its stars, most of it transpires in static long shot or even extreme long shot, with an unfussy virtuosity that is unusual for any popular cinema of the period (that I know of). I also like the way Home largely displaces the romantic plot (the one the studio presumably put up the money for) and instead follows a variety of miniplots featuring the schoolchildren in Kenny Bee's charge. The family-dysfunction and environmentalist themes have a didacticism that's very unlike Hou's later work, but they still alternate and dovetail in intriguing ways, and add up to an interesting portrait of a community in small-town Taiwan. By comparison some of the more recent films seem to me to be little more than stylish glosses on art-cinema clichés. I suspect that the generally cheerful, breezy nature of Home has led it to be somewhat undervalued (even though it is surprisingly plangent at times).

In any event, bad or good, the early films are very interesting for Hou fans, since they both point toward the singular approach he would develop across the 1980s and 1990s and indicate the filmmaking traditions he came out of.

User avatar
Michael Kerpan
Spelling Bee Champeen
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 1:20 pm
Location: New England
Contact:

Re: Hou Hsiao-hsien

#322 Post by Michael Kerpan » Fri Feb 19, 2016 8:17 pm

I "love" Cafe Lumiere and only "like" the early "musicals" -- but even these "minor" films work so much better on the big screen than on one's pwn (normal size) TV. I was glad I got the opportunity to see almost everything when the retrospective came to the Harvard Film Archive.


User avatar
jindianajonz
Jindiana Jonz Abrams
Joined: Wed Oct 12, 2011 8:11 pm

Re: Hou Hsiao-hsien

#324 Post by jindianajonz » Sat Jun 11, 2016 1:42 pm

Interesting that they aren't advertising it as a lecture accompanied by a screening. Perhaps this bodes well for the rights issues being cleared up?

User avatar
hearthesilence
Joined: Fri Mar 04, 2005 4:22 am
Location: NYC

Re: Hou Hsiao-hsien

#325 Post by hearthesilence » Sat Jun 11, 2016 1:52 pm

In an earlier post, it was alluded that Bard College had taken steps to ensure the film was preserved - I'm wondering if that implied an action that would 1) create a new print (since only one English language subtitled print was known to exist) and 2) allow some greater flexibility in showing the film? That is, would there be some type of ownership right to that physical print that would grant it some limited flexibility in being shown?

Post Reply