In the middle of watching the just under four hour long Battles Without Honor and Humanity: The Complete Saga (1980-also reviewed) I decided to check for any other box sets I had of films from the 80's waiting to be opened. Having picked up the set years ago after reading praise for The Assassin (2015),I decided it was finally time to explore the works of Hsiao-Hsien Hou.
View on the film:
Backed by a informative booklet and detailed video essay, Masters Of Cinema present a great transfer, with the day-glo colours having a bright shine and the audio being cleaned.
Later disowning the film (a bit harsh!) writer/directing auteur Hsiao-Hsien Hou teams up with his regular cinematographer of the era Kun-Hou Chen and sketches out future recurring motif's of Taiwan New Wave (TNW) stylisation, underneath the brashly coloured Rom-Com.
Driving the romance between the city and country life in extensive TNW outdoor location filming, Hou finds stylish space in the zoom-ins, growing long takes in wide-shots with prominent empty spaces Hou pans over towards the bubbling romance, landing a wonderful sight-gag spoofing the lovers running into each others arms imagery.
Reuniting after he starred in Good Morning, Taipei (1979) (written by Hou) Kenny Bee (whose voice is dubbed by a Taiwanese actor) gives a jaunty, gurning performance as the heart-throb Da-gang,whilst fellow Pop star "The Queen of Hats" Fong Fei-fei pairs her cherry Rom-Com smile as Wen, with a rebellious glance of kicking away the force marriage her parents are trying to set-up.
Carving their love in a tree, the screenplay by Hou is one made up of many branches, which never settles on which direction to grow in, at one moment indulging in grating broad Comedy, and then flipping over to sweet nothing teen Rom-Com Drama over who will get with the cute girl.
View on the film:
Backed by a informative booklet and detailed video essay, Masters Of Cinema present a great transfer, with the day-glo colours having a bright shine and the audio being cleaned.
Later disowning the film (a bit harsh!) writer/directing auteur Hsiao-Hsien Hou teams up with his regular cinematographer of the era Kun-Hou Chen and sketches out future recurring motif's of Taiwan New Wave (TNW) stylisation, underneath the brashly coloured Rom-Com.
Driving the romance between the city and country life in extensive TNW outdoor location filming, Hou finds stylish space in the zoom-ins, growing long takes in wide-shots with prominent empty spaces Hou pans over towards the bubbling romance, landing a wonderful sight-gag spoofing the lovers running into each others arms imagery.
Reuniting after he starred in Good Morning, Taipei (1979) (written by Hou) Kenny Bee (whose voice is dubbed by a Taiwanese actor) gives a jaunty, gurning performance as the heart-throb Da-gang,whilst fellow Pop star "The Queen of Hats" Fong Fei-fei pairs her cherry Rom-Com smile as Wen, with a rebellious glance of kicking away the force marriage her parents are trying to set-up.
Carving their love in a tree, the screenplay by Hou is one made up of many branches, which never settles on which direction to grow in, at one moment indulging in grating broad Comedy, and then flipping over to sweet nothing teen Rom-Com Drama over who will get with the cute girl.