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London | 'Hou Hsiao-Hsien in Conversation with Tony Rayns'

  • Date:2015-10-27
London | 'Hou Hsiao-Hsien in Conversation with Tony Rayns'




  • Date: Sept. 14, 2015

  • Venue: BFI Southbank

  • Address: Belvedere Road, South Bank, London SE1 8XT

  • Site:http://www.bfi.org.uk





Leading Taiwanese filmmaker Hou Hsiao-hsien (侯孝賢), who won best director with "The Assassin (刺客聶隱娘)” at this year's Cannes Film Festival, made a rare visit to the UK in September.



The decorated director visited the British Film Institute (BFI) after wrapping up his promotional campaign in France and met with noted British film critic Tony Rayns.



Rayns is a private friend to Hou and the main scriptwriter behind the daunting task of translating English subtitles for the Chinese-language "The Assassin.”










"Hou is one of the best examples in world cinema of a director who found his own distinctive style and voice while working on the job. He came up through Taiwan's film industry as an assistant, and changed the trajectory of his career with his breakthrough film The Boys from Fengkuei.



His early films dramatised resonant life stories - including his own - as a prelude to examinations of his island's modern history, caught up in the battles between colonialism, communism and nationalism. These brought him international acclaim: the Venice Golden Lion for A City of Sadness, a Cannes prize for The Puppetmaster.



Famous for the long, wide-angle shots which anchor his characters in communities and landscapes, he takes people as he finds them - idealistic and confused, purposive and insecure. Whether they're in modern Taipei, Tokyo or Paris or roaming Tang Dynasty China, his characters are as flesh-and-blood as any of us.”



—Tony Rayns









Clickhereto watch the hour-long discussion (live translation by Victor Fan):



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