This Time He Moves! The Deeper Significance of Hou Hsiao-Hsien\u27s Radical Break in Good Men, Good Women

Following the recent success of Taiwanese film directors, such as Hou Hsiao-hsien, Edward Yang, Ang Lee and Tsai Ming-liang, Taiwanese film is raising its profile in contemporary cinema. This collection presents an exciting and ambitious foray into the cultural politics of contemporary Taiwan film that goes beyond the auterist mode, the nation-state argument and vestiges of the New Cinema. Cinema Taiwan considers the complex problems of popularity, conflicts between transnational capital and local practice, non-fiction and independent filmmaking as emerging modes of address, and new possibilities of forging vibrant film cultures embedded in national (identity) politics, gender/sexuality and community activism. Insightful and challenging, the essays in this collection will attract attention to a globally significant field of cultural production and will appeal to readers from the areas of film studies, cultural studies and Chinese culture and society

Taiwanese Cinema

Like the island itself, the cinema of Taiwan has always been in a perpetual state of liminality. Taiwan was a Japanese colony for fifty years (1895–1945) and during that time no cinema that could be labeled as distinctively “Taiwanese” emerged. After World War II, Taiwanese cinema was still caught between a political rock and an economic hard place. Despite allowing some low-budget films to be made in the Taiwanese dialect, the Kuomintang (KMT, aka “Nationalist”) government made sure its cinema did not violate its core ideological tenets of a “Greater China.” This came largely at the expense of anything specifically “Taiwanese,” something the KMT saw as a threat to the legitimacy of its one-party rule over the island. Even when a commercial industry did slowly emerge in Taiwan in the 1960s, it still operated under the twin shadows of the government’s strict policies and the exporting prowess of Hong Kong, which dominated Taiwan’s Mandarin-language market. Moreover, Taiwan’s own private industry was in many ways an offshoot of that in Hong Kong, so much so that even in the late 1970s the annual International Film Guide continued to couple Hong Kong and Taiwan under a single entry. Only with the emergence of the Taiwanese New Cinema in the 1980s, with directors winning prizes at international film festivals, did a distinctively “Taiwanese” cinema begin to appear. Nevertheless, numerous ambiguities have persisted. Since the 1980s much of the literature outside of Taiwan tends to focus on this unexpected newcomer now making waves at film festivals across the globe. Within Taiwan, however, much of the literature often downplays such success when not denigrating it. Instead, much of the focus has been on why Taiwan—despite its economic prowess in other areas—could not match the commercial success enjoyed by Hong Kong and, more recently, South Korea. As a result, the literature on this subject is often Janus-faced, reflecting both the continued triumphs and the ongoing failures of Taiwanese cinema. [excerpt

Child of the Long Take: Alfonso Cuaron\u27s Film Aesthetics in the Shadow of Globalization

Alfonso Cuaron\u27s 2006 film, Children of Men, not only suggests that the economic pressures on contemporary Hollywood directors differ little from those in the studio era, it also suggests that film style in the age of globalization is not as homogenized as many fear. The long take is the most prominent feature in Children of Men, including many which are digitally contrived. Lofty reasons by the filmmakers are given for these long lakes, but there are more pedestrian reasons behind this. Other examples past and present suggest that often the tong take serves the needs of both filmmakers and their producers, at least for awhile. Cuaron himself paid his dues over the years with more generic films, and is now making a bold auteurist declaration with these long takes. The question remains whether the economics of Hollywood will allow him to continue

No Man an Island: The Cinema of Hou Hsiao-hsien

Hou Hsiao-hsien is arguably the most celebrated Chinese-language film director in the international film festival realm. However, this is not due to an inert cultural tradition so much as to numerous historical/contextual factors – most of all his being from Taiwan -- which together explain the accomplishments of Hou.https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/books/1051/thumbnail.jp

Dust in the Wind: A Definitive Hou/New Cinema Work

Book Summary: For younger critics and audiences, Taiwanese cinema enjoys a special status, comparable with that of Italian Neorealism and the French New Wave for earlier generations, a cinema that was and is in the midst of introducing an innovative sensibility and a fresh perspective. Hou Hsiao-hsien is the most important Taiwanese filmmaker working today, and his sensuous, richly nuanced films reflect everything that is vigorous and genuine in contemporary film culture. By combining multiple forms of tradition with a uniquely cinematic approach to space and time, Hou has created a body of work that, through its stylistic originality and historical gravity, opens up new possibilities for the medium. Chapter Summary: This chapter is part of the latest anthology devoted to Taiwan\u27s most famous director, Hou Hsiao-hsien. It argues that the lesser known Dust in the Wind is a definitive work for both Hou and the New Cinema movement that made him famous

Taiwanese Comedies Under the Shadow of the Chinese Market

Comedy is arguably the most local of genres. Tropical Fish (1995) is a Taiwanese comedy that made no effort to disguise its local flavour, and was largely unseen outside of Taiwan. Recent Taiwanese comedies such as You Are the Apple of My Eye (2011), The Wonderful Wedding (2015) and Our Times (2015) have achieved not only success in Taiwan, but also unprecedented box office in the mainland Chinese market. Compared to Tropical Fish, all three films also seemingly tone down the local flavour to varying degrees. This is due to the irresistible pull of recent opportunities posed by the astronomical growth of the mainland Chinese market. This paper will analyze the economic forces that have resulted in changes in Taiwanese comedies themselves while at the same time showing that there are varying textual strategies for dealing with the ‘local’ flavour in this new economic climate where the booming Chinese market now has become a major consideration

Jim Udden, Professor of Cinema & Media Studies

In this Next Page column, we ask Jim Udden, Professor of Cinema & Media Studies, to talk books instead of films. Find out which authors make him laugh, his go-to source for reading about new books, and what he is planning to read as soon as his end-of-semester grading is complete

Coming Soon to a Chinese Theater Near You: Why China Matters Even to Hollywood

In recent years, China has engaged in infrastructure projects on a scale and scope without historical precedent. Cinema in China is no exception. For roughly a century Hollywood has managed to dominate the world largely through the control of the largest exhibition market in the developed world, meaning the USA and Canada. Just a couple years ago, however, the Chinese exhibition sector surpassed North America as the world’s largest linguistically unified and developed film exhibition market. Find out why screenwriting classes in the USA now include courses on how to write for the Chinese market. Find out why even you may have unknowingly set foot in a Chinese-owned theater. Find out what are the implications of all this not only for world cinema, including Hollywood, but also for the world’s economic and political future

Good Men, Good Women

This is a new directory where Udden offered scholarly reviews of 9 films of significant import from Taiwan, Hong Kong or mainland China. In addition, a 2000-word overview is included concerning the Taiwanese director, Hou Hsiao-hsien

Flowers of Shanghai

This is a new directory where Udden offered scholarly reviews of 9 films of significant import from Taiwan, Hong Kong or mainland China. In addition, a 2000-word overview is included concerning the Taiwanese director, Hou Hsiao-hsien