Hsiao-Hsien Hou

After film studies at the Taiwan National University of Arts, Hou Hsiao-Hsien worked as an assistant director, notably for Li Hsing. In 1980, he directed his first feature, Cute Girl, which was a box office hit. In 1984, The Boys from Fengkuei further boosted his career.

A winner at the Three Continents Festival, this semi-autobiographical tale marked his first collaboration with Chu Tien-Wen, who would become his regular screenwriter. Three highly personal films, largely inspired by his own life, followed: A Summer at Grandpa 's (1984); A Time to Live, A Time to Die (1985, FIPRESCI Award, Berlin International Film Festival), and Dust in the Wind (1986). In 1989, he won the Golden Lion in Venice for A City of Sadness, a political drama that began a trilogy on the history of Taiwan, continuing with The Puppetmaster (1993, Jury Prize, Cannes Film Festival) and Good Men, Good Women (1995).

A co-writer on Taipei Story , directed by his compatriot Edward Yang, in which he played the lead role, and a producer on Zhang Yimou's Raise the Red Lantern, in 1997 Hou Hsiao-Hsien directed Goodbye South, Goodbye, a depiction of contemporary Taiwan, and the following year, Flowers of Shanghai, an enchanting portrait of the world of 19th century courtesans. In 2001, his hypnotic Millennium Mambo revealed actress Shu Qi to the Western world. Cafe Lumiere (2003), a tribute to master filmmaker Ozu Yasujiro, was followed by Three Times (2005), an ambitious film about three love stories set in three different eras, and his sixth selection in Cannes.

Two years later, he directed the short film The Electric Princess House for the 60th anniversary of the Cannes Film Festival, working alongside thirty other major directors to create the collective work To Each His Own Cinema. In 2008, Flight of the Red Balloon - loosely inspired by Albert Lamorisse's film, and starring Juliette Binoche - was presented at Cannes in Un Certain Regard.

The powerful and unique filmmaking of Hou Hsiao-Hsien - a cineaste of fragments and memories, emotions and sensations - has garnered the attention of several documentary makers, including Olivier Assayas who shot H H H, A Portrait of Hou Hsiao -Hsien (2005), Todd McCarthy who enlisted him to speak about one of history's legendary cinephiles in Pierre Rissient: homme de cinema (2010), and Jia Zhang Ke, who filmed the director's memories of the city of Shanghai and its upheavals in I Wish I Knew (2011).

Wild Bunch