Hou Hsiao-hsien

Hou's sublime film is the story of the puppeteer Li from the Japanese occupation of Taiwan up to the US bombardment during liberation.

Prize-winning début by scriptwriter Hou Hsiao-hsien about decay in the mines in Taiwan and a father-son relationship.

Unknown man bothers actress with a diary stolen from her. Ambitious film about film and life by one of today's greatest film-makers.

Modernised work, including mobile telephones and handicammed scenes, by the Taiwanese master. Petty criminals try to earn money.

Undercooled intrigues in a beautiful portrayal of a fashionable nineteenth-century brothel in Shanghai. Breathtaking costumes and enchanting lighting bring a long-lost world to life.

The formidable Kitano Takeshi in the 'making-of' of his last film Kikujiro. Plus an unforgettable encounter with the Taiwanese master Hou Hsiao-hsien.

Brilliant and original film-making with the more than sexy Shu Qi in the lead. Kaleidoscope of lives, loves and business deals, of techno, drugs and alcohol in contemporary Taipei and a trip to wintery Japan.

Observations in the spirit of Ozu, by the Taiwanese master film maker Hou Hsiao-hsien. A pregnant writer and a bookseller with a passion for trains together move around anonymous Tokyo, looking for a special bar. With leading roles for the Japanese pop idols Yo Hitoto and Asano Tadanobu.

Debut film by Taiwanese talent, Yao Hung-i, the former assistant director to Hou Hsiao-hsien. That the influence of the great teacher is recognisable in this modest, beautiful film about two lesbian friends in the underground scene in Taipei. When one of them falls in love with a man, the revenge is bittersweet.

Three love stories in three different eras (1966, 1911 and 2005) in Hou's characteristic, philosophical and aesthetic style. The different couples are each played convincingly by Shu Qi and Chang Chen.

Imagine that a French director who doesn't speak a word of Chinese wants to make a Taiwanese film, then you would politely advise him against. In this case a Taiwanese master makes a French film. The result is amazingly pleasant, polite and successful. With Juliette Binoche. See also Le ballon rouge.

Hou Hsiao-hsien started his unsurpassed career with three commercial, melodramatic trivialities that were intended as vehicles for the now almost forgotten Hong Kong pop star Kenny Bee. Love between the land surveyor and the city girl who is promised to another is set in the countryside of Thailand.

Naturalistic and nostalgic, the film follows the lives of three teenagers from a fishing village on the Pescadores Islands in western Taiwan. Slowly and clumsily, the boys find their ways into adulthood. The first in Hou Hsiao-hsien’s ‘growing-up trilogy’, establishing him as an auteur. Regained Special: Made in Taiwan

Based on the personal experience of scriptwriter Wu Nian-chen and shot in a picturesque mountain town, this sensitive tale of Wan and his childhood sweetheart is emblematic of Taiwan New Cinema. It also set an aesthetic milestone in Hou Hsiao-hsien’s oeuvre.Regained Special: Made in Taiwan

Written and produced by Hou Hsiao-hsien, Growing Up tells the tale of a recomposed family: a man from the mainland and his native Taiwanese wife. Moving, humorous and superbly performed, the film marked the biggest domestic box-office success for Taiwan New Cinema. Regained Special: Made in Taiwan

Three poignant shorts reflecting on post-colonial Taiwanese society. Adapted by the great scriptwriter Wu Nian-chen from popular nativist literature of the 1970s, this anthology was instrumental in launching Taiwan New Cinema and some of its most important directors, including Hou Hsiao-hsien. Regained Special: Made in Taiwan

Hundreds of martial art films have been made in the wuxia genre over the years, but the Taiwanese master of the modern Chinese outlook on life gives it his own unique twist. With magisterial swordfights but also room for beauty and quiet, conferring a rare realism to the genre.