Hsiao-hsien Hou

Biography

Taiwanese filmmaker Hou Hsiao Hsien born in Meixan (Canton), spent a great deal of his time as a teenager in the cinema, before going on to study film at the Taiwan National Arts University. After starting out as an assistant director, he made his first feature film Cute Girls in 1980. In 1984, with The Boys from Fengkuei, he established himself as the leader of the Taiwan New Wave. In competition at Locarno as early as 1985 with one of his first masterpieces, A Summer at Grandpa’s, Hou Hsiao Hsien was subsequently honoured with two screenings on the Piazza Grande, of A Time to Live, a Time to Die (1986) and The Puppetmaster (1993). Selected for competition in Cannes six times, Hou Hsiao Hsien’s films have always received great critical acclaim there. In 2004, he was invited by a Japanese studio to make a film in tribute to the filmmaker Ozu, and thus made Café Lumière which was shot in Tokyo.