Three Times Hou Hsiao - Hsien [top]

To watch one Hou Hsiao-hsien film is to adjust your pace. To watch three is to relearn how to see. Hou does not make movies that rush to meet you; he builds worlds that you must walk into, slowly, often from a great distance. For this review, we consider three pillars: A Time to Live, a Time to Die (1985), The Flowers of War (a common misnomer—correcting to is actually Zhang Yimou; Hou’s true historical masterpiece is A City of Sadness (1989)), and The Assassin (2015).

Let us correct that to a proper triptych: (youth/memory), The Puppetmaster (1993) (history/theatre), and The Assassin (2015) (nature/martial arts). three times hou hsiao hsien

: By spanning nearly a century, Hou examines how the concepts of love and freedom change—or remain frustratingly stagnant—over time. Aesthetic Mastery : The film is famous for its "optics of ephemerality," To watch one Hou Hsiao-hsien film is to adjust your pace