Also Like Life: The Films of Hou Hsiao-hsien

10/10/14 to 12/14/14

We are pleased to present a retrospective of the work of Hou Hsiao-hsien, “the world's greatest working narrative filmmaker” (J. Hoberman), who first came to prominence as a key figure of the New Taiwan Cinema movement of the 1980s. Our series begins in October with Hou's early works, including screenings of his first three, extremely rare commercial films. The series continues through mid-December, with such acclaimed titles as Dust in the Wind, Flowers of Shanghai, and Café Lumière.

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  • Upcoming
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  • Past
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  • Past
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Past Films

  • Flight of the Red Balloon

    • Sunday, December 14 6pm

    Hou Hsiao-hsien (France/Taiwan, 2008). Hou Hsiao-hsien's experimental remake of the French children's classic. Starring Juliette Binoche and the City of Light. (115 mins)

  • Café Lumière

    • Friday, December 12 7 pm

    Hou Hsiao-hsien (Japan/Taiwan, 2003). Hou Hsiao-hsien pays tribute to Yasujiro Ozu in this meditative look at life and love in contemporary Tokyo, starring Tadanobu Asano. “The plot is spare, but the sounds, images, and ambience are indelible” (Jonathan Rosenbaum). (103 mins)

  • Three Times

    • Saturday, December 6 7:30 pm

    Hou Hsiao-hsien (Taiwan, 2005). Three different time periods, two lead roles, and one eternal love: Hou Hsiao-hsien's romantic work moves across the history of Taiwan-and the arc of the director's career-to explore the memory of love in 1966, 1911, and today. “Hypnotically beautiful” (Manohla Dargis). (130 mins)

  • Millennium Mambo

    • Friday, December 5 7 pm

    Hou Hsiao-hsien (Taiwan/France, 2001). The glamorous Shu Qi pouts her way through Taipei's neon nightclubs in this hypnotic look at contemporary youth, shot by In The Mood For Love cameraman Mark Lee Ping-bin. “Among the most sublime, compelling, and beautifully crafted films to ever grace the big screen” (Film Threat). (119 mins)

  • Flowers of Shanghai

    • Sunday, November 30 4 pm

    Hou Hsiao-hsien (Taiwan, 1998). New 35mm print! Tony Leung stars in Hou's quietly sumptuous tale of brothel life in nineteenth-century Shanghai. "'Surrender' is the key to this visually ravishing masterpiece" (Philip Lopate). (113 mins)

  • Flowers of Shanghai

    • Sunday, November 23 4pm

    Hou Hsiao-hsien (Taiwan, 1998). New 35mm print! Tony Leung stars in Hou's quietly sumptuous tale of brothel life in nineteenth-century Shanghai. "'Surrender' is the key to this visually ravishing masterpiece" (Philip Lopate). (113 mins)

  • Goodbye South, Goodbye

    • Friday, November 21 9pm

    Hou Hsiao-hsien (Taiwan, 1996). A band of “gangsters” move from one luckless scheme to another in the south of Taiwan in Hou's take on the gangster film, which replaces gun battles and violence with the quiet moments in between. “A fascinating window onto modern Taiwan” (Berenice Reynaud). (112 mins)

  • Good Men, Good Women

    • Saturday, November 15 8:30pm

    Hou Hsiao-hsien (Taiwan, 1995). New 35mm print! Introduced by Richard Suchenski. Hou views Cold War repression in Taiwan through a present-day scrim. "A rigorous work of art whose mysteries are worth unraveling" (Caryn James). (108 mins)

  • The Puppetmaster

    • Friday, November 14 7 pm

    Hou Hsiao-hsien (Taiwan, 1993). Free screening. Introduction and booksigning by Richard Suchenski. Suchenski and Guo-Juin Hong in conversation. Hou's film about the puppeteer Li Tien-lu is "epic in scope but personal in outlook, astonishingly rich in atmosphere but as unforced as the passing moment" (Kent Jones). (142 mins)

  • A City of Sadness

    • Thursday, November 13 7 pm

    Hou Hsiao-hsien (Taiwan, 1989). Free screening. A family lives through Taiwan's independence from Japan, and later political crackdown. Hong Kong superstar Tony Leung stars in “one of the supreme masterworks of contemporary cinema” (Jonathan Rosenbaum). (158 mins)

  • Daughter of the Nile

    • Sunday, November 9 6 pm

    Hou Hsiao-Hsien (Taiwan, 1987). A young woman and her brother float along the periphery of the Taipei underworld in Hou's intriguing blend of gangster tale and mood-drenched drama, a fascinating and little-seen forerunner to his Millennium Mambo and Goodbye South, Goodbye. (93 mins)

  • Dust in the Wind

    • Friday, November 7 7 pm

    Hou Hsiao-hsien (Taiwan, 1986). The story of a country boy's lost love, "a heartbreaking film of profound humanity, the high point of an enormously gifted director in mid-career" (Evans Chan). (110 mins)

  • A Time to Live and a Time to Die

    • Thursday, November 6 7 pm

    Hou Hsiao-hsien (Taiwan, 1985). Out of his own childhood, Hou weaves a picture of a moment in time. "A spectacular triumph without anything of the 'spectacular' about it" (Derek Malcolm). (136 mins)

  • A Summer at Grandpa's

    • Saturday, November 1 8:15pm

    Hou Hsiao-hsien (Taiwan, 1984). Two city kids spend a summer in the countryside while their mother is hospitalized in the film that marked Hou's arrival on the world-cinema stage. “Gentle, deeply humane and totally assured” (Tony Rayns). (98 mins)

  • The Boys from Fengkuei

    • Tuesday, October 28 7:00 PM

    Hou Hsiao-hsien (Taiwan, 1983). A trio of bored teenagers finds trouble and women from the small island of Fengkuei to the bustling southern port of Kaohsiung in Hou's fourth film. “A triumph of the hauntingly ordinary” (Village Voice). (99 mins)

  • Cheerful Wind

    • Tuesday, October 21 7:00 PM

    Hou Hsiao-hsien (Taiwan, 1981). Hong Kong singer Kenny Bee and Taiwanese pop diva Feng Fei-fei return for Hou's extremely rare second film, which follows the unlikely romance between a blind man and a photographer across Taiwan's most scenic locales. (81 mins)

  • The Green, Green Grass of Home

    • Sunday, October 19 6:45 PM

    Hou Hsiao-hsien (Taiwan, 1982). Hong Kong crooner Kenny Bee is an idealistic big-city teacher assigned to a remote rural village in Hou's gentle look at country life. (91 mins)

  • The Sandwich Man

    • Friday, October 10 7:00 PM

    Hou Hsiao-hsien, Tseng Chuang-hsiang, Wan Jen (Taiwan, 1983). Considered the opening salvo of the New Taiwan Cinema, The Sandwich Man combined short films by three directors into a declaration of intent and a statement on a rapidly modernizing Taiwan. (100 mins)

  • Cute Girl

    • Friday, October 10 9:00 PM

    Hou Hsiao-hsien (Taiwan, 1980). Hou Hsiao-hsien made an unlikely feature debut with this breezy romantic comedy starring Hong Kong singer Kenny Bee and Taiwanese pop diva Feng Fei-fei. Eighties fashion, Canto-pop-driven montages, and glimpses of a changing Taipei pepper this tale of mismatched lovers. (90 mins)