Hou Hsiao-Hsien

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Hou Hsiao-Hsien (2015)

Hou Hsiao-Hsien ( Chinese  侯孝賢  /  侯孝贤 , Pinyin Hóu Xiàoxián ; born April 8, 1947 in Meixian , Republic of China ) is a Taiwanese film director , screenwriter , film actor and film producer . Other names by which he is known are Xiao Xian Hou, Xiao-Xian Hou and Hou Hao Yin.

He was nominated six times for the Palme d' Or. In addition to a Golden Lion and two FIPRESCI prizes , he received the Akira Kurosawa Award in 2005 . Hou Hsiao-Hsien received the 2007 Leopard of Honor of the Locarno Film Festival for his lifetime achievement. At the 68th Cannes International Film Festival in 2015 , Hou Hsiao-Hsien received the award for best director for the martial arts epic The Assassin .

life and work

Together with Edward Yang , he is one of the leading representatives of the so-called Taiwanese Nouvelle Vague .

He was born in Meixian, in the southern Chinese province of Canton, before the Communist Party, led by Mao Tsetung, took power. In 1948, his family immigrated to Taiwan with him . He belongs to the Hakka ethnic group . Hou graduated from the National Taiwan Academy of the Arts . After graduating from school in 1965, he went to the army for three years. His frequent visits to the cinema made him want to make films himself.

He grew up watching films from Hollywood and Hong Kong and only later learned of Ozu's work.

His first films were from popular genres and were made within the commercial Taiwanese film industry . With his contribution to the episode film Erzi de Dawan'ou , he turned to more personal subjects. This went hand in hand with a search for a decidedly Taiwanese style. The following films dealt mainly with country life and have been shown at numerous smaller festivals around the world. His international breakthrough came with The City of Sadness , which won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 1989 . This work was the first part of a trilogy dealing with Taiwanese history (the other films in this series are The Master of Puppetry and Haonan Haonu ). In the further course of his career, Hou dealt more and more with the urban presence of Taiwan in films such as Nanguo Zaijan, Nanguo and Qianxi manbo . He has also produced two films outside of Taiwan for the first time in recent years. Kōhi Jikō was created in Japan in 2003 as a tribute to the director Yasujiro Ozu . In 2007 the French production Le Voyage du ballon rouge followed with Juliette Binoche in the lead role.

Frequent cooperation partners are Mark Lee Ping-Bin on camera, Chu Tien-Wen as the author and Li Tianlu as the actor. Village Voice and the Film Society of Lincoln Center with a retrospective in 1999 have stood out as advocates . The Babylon in Berlin-Mitte brought his poor-action, but elliptically difficult works and him personally to Germany, from where he came to Germany for the funeral service for Edward Yang left early. The Cahiers du cinéma also remember him as "HHH". Nevertheless, many films are currently not available in German-speaking countries, let alone seen on television. A city of sadness touched on a taboo subject, the February 28 incident , from a country where "national identity is a permanent question mark" (Kent Jones).

In addition to turning away from Hollywood dramaturgy or any dramaturgy in general, his strengths are particularly recognized in the mise-en-scène and the cadrage in long takes. The late films do not vie for the viewer's understanding and provide hardly any orientation, instead they provide food for thought. With an object space that is not limited by any dimension , an open form of the world between appearances and exits and signs that are empty in terms of film language , his scenes often appear as if they have been cut out of reality. With the labyrinthine Flowers of Shanghai without cuts and A City of Sadness without close-ups, which are immersed in yellow tones throughout , he tends to limit himself to minimalism in his oeuvre . Three Times stands out for its cross-work motivic construction. In more recent films, more color can be discerned in intimate interiors and often with piano accompaniment. The Lexicon of International Films speaks of “strict style”, Kent Jones of aestheticism , J. Hoberman of a “rebirth of the cinema itself”.

“But here there are extremely artificial journeys with which the scenic space is broken down into discrete units - camera movements in which the conventional accompaniment of the figure's movement does not play a role. [...] The recoding of the image through the movements of the camera represent expeditions in space [...] In addition, there are now strict axis jumps [...] there are no scene resolutions like in western cinema "

- Rainer Rother : Lexicon of International Films

In 2001, Fergus Daly proposed four prosaic formulas that could outline his aesthetic :

  1. Historical memory is impersonal.
  2. My experiences are not mine.
  3. The core of the recording keeps drifting out of the area.
  4. We are accumulations of signs and affects that are shaped by light.

“Kohi Jikou was […] a picture sheet of exquisite accuracy: static settings, of extreme sobriety. Life, nothing else, is at the center of Hous casual storytelling. [...] 'To sleep in the cinema means to trust the film.' once said aptly. "

- Rüdiger Suchsland

“Hou Hsiao-Hsien is a good example of someone who has basically invented his own film language . [...] In essence, he has stopped being manipulative. He has become observant. He gives the audience all the information they need, but very minimal. He has taken away and taken away and taken away again, to the point that there is just enough left to communicate the essential points. "

- Tony Rayns

In 2015 he was appointed to the jury of the 72nd Venice International Film Festival .

Filmography

As a director

  • 1980 - Cute Girl / Loveable You (就是 溜溜 的 她, Jiushi liuliu de ta )
  • 1981 - Cheerful Wind / Play While You Play (風兒 踢踏 踩 / 风儿 踢踏 踩, Feng'er ti ta cai )
  • 1982 - Green Green Grass of Home (在 那 河畔 青草 青, Zai na Hepan Qingcao Qing )
  • 1983 - The Faraway Days of My Childhood / The Boys from Fengkuei / All the Youthful Day / The Man from Fengkuei (風 櫃 來 的 人 / 风 柜 来 的 人, Fenggui lai de Ren )
  • 1983 - The Sandwich Man / The Taste of Apples (兒子 的 大 玩偶 / 儿子 的 大 玩偶, Erzi de Dawan'ou )
  • 1984 - A Summer at Grandpa's / Big Holidays (冬冬 的 假期, Dongdong de Jiaqi )
  • 1985 - Tales of a distant childhood ( Tong nien wang shi )
  • 1986 - love like dust in the wind ( Lianlian fengchen )
  • 1987 - Niluohe nuer
  • 1989 - A City of Sadness (悲情 城市, Beiqing Chengshi )
  • 1993 - The Master of Puppetry ( Ximen renshen )
  • 1995 - Haonan haonu
  • 1996 - Nanguo Zaijan, Nanguo
  • 1998 - Hai shang hua / Flowers of Shanghai (海上花, Haishanghua )
  • 2001 - Qianxi manbo / Millennium Mambo (千禧曼波, Qianxi Manbo )
  • 2003 - Café Lumière / Coffee Jikou ( Japanese珈 琲 時光 / コ ー ヒ ー じ こ う, Kōhi Jikō , Chinese咖啡 時光 / 咖啡 时光, Kafei Shiguang )… original Japanese
  • 2005 - Three Times (最好 的 時光 / 最好 的 时光, Zuihao de Shiguang )
  • 2007 - Le Voyage du ballon rouge
  • 2015 - The Assassin ( Nie yin niang )

As a screenwriter

  • 1976 - Cui hu han
  • 1979 - Zao an tai bei
  • 1982 - Qiao ru cai the fei fei fei
  • 1983 - Green Green Grass of Home (在 那 河畔 青草 青, Zai na Hepan Qingcao Qing )
  • 1983 - You ma tsai zai
  • 1983 - Hsiao pi te ku shih
  • 1984 - Xiao ba ba de tian kong
  • 1984 - A Summer at Grandpa's / Big Holidays (冬冬 的 假期, Dongdong de Jiaqi )
  • 1985 - Zhui xiang nian de ji jie
  • 1985 - Tales of a distant childhood ( Tong nien wang shi )
  • 1985 - Taipei Story (青梅竹馬 / 青梅竹马, Qingmei Zhuma )
  • 1995 - Qunian dongtian
  • 2003 - Café Lumière / Coffee Jikou ( Japanese珈 琲 時光 / コ ー ヒ ー じ こ う, Kōhi Jikō , Chinese咖啡 時光 / 咖啡 时光, Kafei Shiguang )… original Japanese
  • 2005 - Three Times (最好 的 時光 / 最好 的 时光, Zuihao de Shiguang )
  • 2007 - Le Voyage du ballon rouge

As a producer

  • 1983 - Hsiao pi te ku shih
  • 1999 - borderline

As an actor

  • 1985 - Taipei Story (青梅竹馬 / 青梅竹马, Qingmei Zhuma )
  • 1986 - Lao niang gou sao

Documentary film

literature

  • Rainer Rother: Variations in a strict style - Hou Hsiao-hsien . In: Catholic Institute for Media Information [KIM] and Catholic Film Commission for Germany (Ed.): Lexicon of International Films . Zweiausendeins, Frankfurt am Main 2002, ISBN 3-86150-455-3 (Red. Horst Peter Koll, Stefan Lux and Hans Messias with the help of Jörg Gerle, Josef Lederle and Ralf Schenk, welcomed by Klaus Brüne).
  • David Bordwell : Figures Traced in Light . University of California Press, Berkeley 2005, ISBN 0-520-24197-5 .
  • Jean-Michel Frodon (Ed.): Hou Hsiao-Hsien . Cahiers du Cinema Livres, Paris 1999, ISBN 2-86642-249-X .
  • James Udden: No Man an Island: The Cinema of Hou Hsiao-Hsien , Hongkong University Press 2009, ISBN 962-209-074-5
  • Hou Hsiao: Flowers of Shanghai. In: Fox Lorber Films (ed.). Winstar Cinema, New York 1998, ISBN 0-7942-0105-9 .
  • Hou Hsiao: City of Sadness. In: Fox Lorber Films (ed.). Winstar TV & Video, New York 1993, ISBN 0-7942-0091-5 .
  • Richard I. Suchenski (Ed.): Hou Hsiao-hsien , FilmmuseumSynemaPublications Volume 23, Vienna: SYNEMA - Society for Film and Media, 2014, ISBN 978-3-901644-58-0

Web links

Commons : Hou Hsiao-Hsien  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ 18th Tokyo International Film Festival. (No longer available online.) In: tiff-jp.net. Tokyo International Film Festival , archived from the original on October 6, 2008 ; accessed on October 16, 2008 .
  2. ^ Rother, p. F 17.
  3. ↑ a b Archibald, s. Weblinks: "Hou Hsiao-Hsien is a very good example of someone who kind of invented his own film language [...] Basically he stopped being manipulative. He became observational. He provided the audience with everything they needed, all the information they needed, but very minimally. He would cut back, cut back, cut back, until he thought he had the minimum necessary to communicate the essential points ” .
  4. ↑ An Unfolding Horizon: the Films of Hou Hsiao-Hsien. (No longer available online.) In: filmlinc.com. Walter Reade Theater, archived from the original on February 1, 2010 ; accessed on October 16, 2008 .
  5. ↑ Silvia Hallensleben: Time to Live, Time to Die. In: Der Tagesspiegel . August 9, 2007, accessed October 16, 2008 .
  6. ^ Emmanuel Burdeau: Reading & Writing & Arithmetic. (No longer available online.) In: Cahiers du cinéma . November 2005, archived from the original on October 6, 2008 ; accessed on August 23, 2008 .
  7. ↑ cf. Rother, S. F 17.
  8. ↑ cf. Ng on "Masters of Puppetry", see web links.
  9. ↑ cf. Rother, S. F 18.
  10. ↑ a b cf. Lee, see web links.
  11. ↑ cf. Gabe Klinger: Decoding Hou: Analyzing Structural Coincidences in The Puppetmaster. (No longer available online.) In: Senses of Cinema. July 2000, archived from the original on December 5, 2008 ; accessed on October 16, 2008 .
  12. ↑ cf. Dag Sødtholt: The Complexity of Minimalism: Hou Hsiao-hsien's Three Times. In: Senses of Cinema. 2006, accessed August 24, 2008 .
  13. ↑ Kent, see web links: "Hou may require a bit of brainwork from the viewer" .
  14. ↑ on the open form cf. James Monaco: Understanding Film , p. 188 f.
  15. ↑ cf. Robin Wood: City of Sadness. In: Film Reference. Retrieved October 18, 2008 : "giving a constant sense of lives continuing beyond the image"
  16. ↑ cf. Jeffrey M. Anderson: Flight of the Red Balloon (2008). In: Combustible Celluloid. Retrieved on October 18, 2008 (English): "Like most of Hou's work, the individual scenes play out like slices of life"
  17. ↑ Rother, p. F 18.
  18. ↑ Ng, see web links.
  19. ^ Fergus Daly: On Four Prosaic Formulas Which Might Summarize Hou's Poetics. (No longer available online.) In: Senses of Cinema. 2001, archived from the original on December 5, 2008 ; accessed on October 18, 2008 (English): “1. Historical memory is impersonal. 2. My experiences don't belong to me. 3. The shot's center of focus is forever drifting out-of-field. 4. We are clusters of signs and affects given form by light "
  20. ↑ Rüdiger Suchsland: At least in the cinema, morality triumphs: memories, eros and what was left of the cinema. In: Artechock. September 15, 2004, accessed October 18, 2008 .
Note: This article places the family name before the person's first name. This is the usual order in Chinese. Hou is the family name here, Hsiao-hsien is the first name.
personal data
SURNAME Hou, Hsiao-Hsien
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hóu Xiàoxián
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Taiwanese director
DATE OF BIRTH April 8, 1947
PLACE OF BIRTH Meixian , China