Hou Hsiao-hsien

30-Second Overview

A director who refused to use close-ups and did not require actors to memorize lines nevertheless became one of the world’s most influential masters of Chinese-language cinema. Hou Hsiao-hsien (1947-) overturned cinematic language with an “aesthetic of long takes like landscape painting.” In 1989, A City of Sadness won the Venice Golden Lion, opening Taiwan cinema’s international golden age. His influence extends to major contemporary directors such as Jia Zhangke and Hirokazu Kore-eda, proving that “anti-Hollywood” methods of filmmaking can also create enduring art. After The Assassin won Best Director at Cannes in 2015, he retired in 2023 because of Alzheimer’s disease, bringing a legendary career to an end.

In 1988, outside the iron gates of the Venice Film Festival, a group of Taiwanese directors enviously touched the gates, wondering when they might enter this temple of cinema. One of them was Hou Hsiao-hsien, 41 years old. He had already won numerous awards at second-tier European film festivals, yet Taiwanese media still mocked him as a prizewinner at “country film festivals.”

One year later, inside those same gates, he carried home the Golden Lion for A City of Sadness: the first top prize at an international A-list film festival in Taiwan cinema history. Even more astonishingly, this “incomprehensible” film grossed NT$60 million at the box office, while the A City of Sadness handbook at bookstores in Taipei Main Station sold out immediately.

From being ridiculed as “box-office poison” to conquering Venice, Hou Hsiao-hsien created a visual language unique in film history through the most anti-mainstream methods: rejecting close-ups, refusing to make actors accommodate the camera, and rejecting conventional dramatic structure.

From Military Dependents’ Village to Venice: The Cinematic Path of a Hakka Boy

The Starting Point of Crossing Boundaries (1947-1969)

Hou Hsiao-hsien was born on April 8, 1947, in Meixian, Guangdong, into a Hakka family. At the age of one, he moved with his family to a military dependents’ village in Fengshan, Kaohsiung, growing up in an environment where waishengren, post-1949 mainlander, and benshengren, local Taiwanese, cultures intermingled. This experience of “crossing” became the core DNA of his later work: crossing not only provincial identities, but also eras, languages, and memories.

“The experience of the military dependents’ village taught me very early that there is nothing pure in the world.” — Hou Hsiao-hsien

Introverted from childhood and skilled at observation, he became a born “silent observer.” In high school his grades were ordinary; he preferred reading novels and listening to music. In 1969, he was admitted to the Department of Motion Pictures at the National Taiwan Academy of Arts, formally entering the world of film.

The Formation of a Commercial Film Director (1980-1983)

In 1980, Hou Hsiao-hsien began directing at the age of 33. His first three works, Cute Girl, Cheerful Wind, and The Green, Green Grass of Home, were all commercially successful romantic films: fresh, sweet, and entirely in line with market expectations.

Yet this period had already planted the seeds of his later revolution: he began to question, “Why must films be made this way?”

The Call of New Cinema (1983-1989)

In 1982, Hsiao Yeh and Wu Nien-jen planned In Our Time and The Sandwich Man, inviting emerging directors such as Edward Yang to participate; Hou Hsiao-hsien was invited as well. After coming into contact with this group of creators around the age of 30, many of whom had returned from studying abroad, he began to consider a deeper question:

What is cinema, truly?

Beginning with The Boys from Fengkuei (1983), Hou Hsiao-hsien found his answer.

A Revolutionary Cinematic Language: When the Machine Accommodates People, Not People the Machine

The Filming Philosophy of “Anti-Cinema”

At the core of Hou Hsiao-hsien’s cinematic revolution was one subversive idea: let the camera accommodate the actors, rather than making the actors accommodate the camera.

This sounds technical, but in practice it was a revolution in his entire conception of cinema:

Traditional cinema: actors stand on marks → composition → lighting → filming
Hou Hsiao-hsien’s cinema: actors move naturally → the camera follows → no artificial lighting → recording

The result: his films have almost no close-ups, because close-ups require actors to “accommodate” the camera’s position.

The Poetics of the Long Take

A critic from the French journal Cahiers du Cinéma described Hou Hsiao-hsien’s long takes as “like the empty space in Chinese landscape painting, allowing time itself to become the protagonist.”

But his long takes differ from those of Tsai Ming-liang or Theo Angelopoulos: they are not deliberately “slow,” but rather an “objective gaze.” He sought to erase the camera’s sense of presence and allow viewers to feel a reality closest to everyday life.

Technical innovations:

• Avoiding detailed rehearsals, allowing actors to “merge with the setting”
• Often avoiding artificial lighting and relying on natural light
• Spending half a month on a single scene until it felt “natural”
• Treating the camera always as a “recorder,” not a “director”

In Café Lumière, the scene in which the male and female leads pass each other in different trains took nearly half a month to complete. Even the German director Wim Wenders exclaimed that it was “incredible.”

The Spread of Influence

After watching The Puppetmaster, Akira Kurosawa said, “I could not make a work like this.”

The list of contemporary directors influenced by Hou Hsiao-hsien is astonishing:

• Jia Zhangke (a leading figure of China’s Sixth Generation)
• Hirokazu Kore-eda (a contemporary Japanese master)
• Abbas Kiarostami (Iranian New Wave)

All inherited, to different degrees, Hou Hsiao-hsien’s “objective gaze” and “long-take aesthetics.”

The Venice Miracle: _A City of Sadness_ and Taiwan New Cinema’s Conquest of the World

Seven Years on the International Festival Circuit (1983-1989)

The Golden Lion for A City of Sadness did not appear out of nowhere. Beginning in 1983, Hou Hsiao-hsien had built up prestige at international film festivals:

The Success of an International Strategy

The success of A City of Sadness was carefully planned:

1. Media offensive: Producer Chiu Fu-sheng invited journalists from major international publications such as The Village Voice and Sight & Sound to Taiwan for interviews
2. Cultural translation: A beautifully produced film handbook was made, with character relationship charts and historical background explanations
3. The role of film critic Peggy Chiao: She served as a cultural bridge, helping Western audiences understand Eastern aesthetics

Peggy Chiao: “Do not think people will naturally understand your film. You have to teach them how to read a non-Western, non-mainstream cinematic aesthetic.”

The Meaning of the Turning Point

After A City of Sadness won its award, the Taiwanese media’s attitude toward New Cinema changed 180 degrees. It went from “box-office poison” to “the glory of Taiwan.”

More importantly, it opened Taiwan cinema’s international golden age (1989-1995):

• Edward Yang’s A Brighter Summer Day (Special Jury Prize, 1991 Tokyo International Film Festival)
• Hou Hsiao-hsien’s The Puppetmaster (Jury Prize, 1993 Cannes Film Festival)
• Ang Lee’s The Wedding Banquet (Golden Bear, 1993 Berlin Film Festival)
• Tsai Ming-liang’s Vive L’Amour (Golden Lion, 1994 Venice Film Festival)

Peggy Chiao described it this way: “Between 1989 and 1995, the best and most fashionable films were Taiwanese films.”

Artistic Peak: From _The Puppetmaster_ to _The Assassin_

The Complete Maturation of a Style (1990s)

The Puppetmaster (1993) is widely recognized as Hou Hsiao-hsien’s artistic peak. This biographical film about the glove puppetry artist Li Tien-lu pushed Hou’s aesthetics to the extreme:

• Coexistence of multiple languages: Taiwanese, Japanese, and Mandarin intermingle naturally, reflecting Taiwan’s linguistic ecology
• Play-within-a-play structure: The boundaries between glove puppetry and real life become blurred
• Minimalist narrative: There is almost no conventional dramatic conflict; the film depends entirely on the creation of atmosphere

Cannes juror Abbas Kiarostami said the film left him “deeply convinced.”

Continued Innovation in the 21st Century

• Flowers of Shanghai (1998): Adapted from Eileen Chang’s novel, the entire film uses Shanghainese
• Millennium Mambo (2001): A collaboration with Shu Qi, exploring contemporary urban disorientation
• Three Times (2005): A triptych structure tracing love across three eras

_The Assassin_: A Final Masterpiece (2015)

Made over seven years, The Assassin became Hou Hsiao-hsien’s cinematic farewell. This wuxia film adapted from a Tang-dynasty tale featured:

• Best Director at Cannes: Hou Hsiao-hsien’s second major award from one of Europe’s three major film festivals
• Extreme aesthetics: Praised as “one of the most visually beautiful films”
• Cultural depth: A reinterpretation of Tang-dynasty culture through a modern lens

But it was also “critically acclaimed but not commercially successful,” with an underwhelming box office, proving that Hou Hsiao-hsien remained a purist of art to the end.

The Cultural Legacy of the Godfather of Taiwan New Cinema

Layers of Influence

Hou Hsiao-hsien’s influence on Taiwanese and world cinema can be divided into three levels:

Technical level: He pioneered the cinematographic aesthetic of the “objective gaze”
Cultural level: He proved that non-Western cinema could also conquer international film festivals
Spiritual level: He insisted on artistic purity and refused to compromise with commerce

Disciples and Inheritance

Taiwanese directors directly influenced by Hou Hsiao-hsien include:

• Tsai Ming-liang: Inherited the aesthetics of the long take and developed an even more extreme “slow cinema”
• Ang Lee: Although he moved toward Hollywood, Hou-style aesthetics can still be seen in works such as Lust, Caution
• Edward Yang: Though different in style, he likewise insisted on the ideals of art cinema

The Continuity of International Reputation

Even in retirement, Hou Hsiao-hsien is still regarded by the international film world as a “living legend”:

• The Cinémathèque Française established a Hou Hsiao-hsien section
• The Cannes Film Festival has repeatedly paid tribute to his contributions
• The Venice Film Festival called him a “film poet”

“Hou Hsiao-hsien’s films taught the world that cinema can be poetry, not only story.” — France’s Cahiers du Cinéma

Farewell and Eternity (Retirement in 2023)

A Farewell Through Dementia

In 2023, the 76-year-old Hou Hsiao-hsien formally retired because of Alzheimer’s disease, shocking the international film world. The Assassin became his farewell work.

The international media’s assessment: “the end of an era.” Yet his influence will continue forever.

Greatness in the Ordinary

After retiring, Hou Hsiao-hsien returned to family life, walking with his son near his home in Taipei and living the life of an ordinary elderly man. On April 8, 2025, his 78th birthday, the media captured a warm image of father and son walking together.

The image was very “Hou Hsiao-hsien”: no drama, no close-up, only quiet, poetic everyday life.

His Place in Film History

What Hou Hsiao-hsien ultimately left the world was not only a series of films, but an entirely new way of “seeing”:

He proved that cinema can move the whole world without relying on Hollywood grammar.
He proved that “slowness” and “stillness” can possess equally powerful artistic force.
He proved that Taiwan can occupy an important position on the international cultural map.

In a world growing ever faster and louder, Hou Hsiao-hsien’s films remind us: sometimes, the most profound beauty comes from the quietest gaze.

He is the pride of Taiwanese cinema and a precious asset to world cinema. When film history is written, Hou Hsiao-hsien’s name will shine forever: not because of how many films he made, but because he changed cinema itself.

References

1. The Golden Lion Did Not Appear Out of Nowhere: Peggy Chiao on Hou Hsiao-hsien’s International Film Festival Path in the 1980s - Central News Agency
2. The Secret Behind Hou Hsiao-hsien’s Film Shots: A Landscape-Painting-Like Style Not Simply Because of Long Takes - The News Lens
3. An Ally in the Arts: How International Independent Filmmaking and Film Festivals Enhance Taiwan's Visibility - Global Taiwan Institute
4. Hou Hsiao-hsien - Wikipedia
5. Hou Hsiao-hsien Has Alzheimer’s Disease; Foreign Media: _The Assassin_ Is His Final Work - Central News Agency
6. Hou Hsiao-hsien | Taiwan Cinema