The Sinophone Cinema of Hou Hsiao-hsien: Culture, Style, Voice, and Motion

Book excerpt: "Featuring rare interviews and sophisticated analysis, this book sheds light on Hou's narrative innovations and aesthetic triumphs while, along the way, unlocking some of the mysteries lurking behind one of the greatest bodies of cinematic work ever produced." -MICHAEL BERRY, University of California Santa Barbara "Lupke's book provides comprehensive coverage, detailed contextualization, and insightful analysis from Hou's earliest works to his most recent accomplishment. The narrative is particularly compelling because it weaves cultural and social contexts and filmic texts together, and it brings various formal elements (image, editing, language, music) to bear upon one another. The book also includes careful comparison with another East Asian auteur Ozu Yasujirô. The Sinophone Cinema of Hou Hsiao-hsien is a significant addition." -GUO-JUIN, HONG, Duke University "Lupke's comprehensive and original study excavates the literary inspirations of Hou's filmmaking, showing how Wu Nianzhen, Shen Congwen, and especially Zhu Tianwen shape his philosophy and aesthetic. In Lupke's convincing account, the anti-filial behaviors of their characters, which have attracted little critical attention, are the key to understanding their shared concern for the visible dissolution of the family in the modern world. In addition to its lucid analysis, this book contextualizes the filmmaking history of Hou in ways that illustrate the cultural and political significance of studying Taiwan Cinema in a global context." -HSIU-CHUANG DEPPMAN, Oberlin College "Serving both as an excellent comprehensive introduction to the filmmaker and as a series of in-depth readings, this informative, engaging, and insightful book covers the full range of Hou's work. Writing clearly and elegantly, Lupke perceptively relates Hou's films to both literary and cinematic antecedents. Aside from Hou's well-known connection to Taiwan's 'native soil' literature, Lupke highlights as well the filmmaker's debt to earlier mainland Chinese authors such as Shen Congwen, Zhang Ailing, and Hu Lancheng. Hou's singular contribution to film aesthetics, summarized as 'stasis within motion,' comes through vividly and convincingly." -JASON MCGRATH, University of Minnesota *This book includes images.