"The cinema that I like has a kind of simultaneity between conspicuousness, exteriority and content... If I were to compare film to music, I’d say that what interests me is more like the style of a fugue than that of an orchestral symphony. I like to create films in the same way as one would a fugue."

Hou Hsiao Hsien was born in China in 1947. The following year his family moved to Taiwan where he spent his childhood. He studied filmmaking at the National Taiwan Academy of Arts. Then, he worked as an assistant director to Li Hsing and Lai Cheng-Ying, and took turns directing. Soon, his talent is recognized: Green, Green Grass of Home (1981), his third film, was nominated for a Golden Horse Award in Taiwan, then The Boys from Fengkuei (1983) and A Summer at Grandpa’s (1984) attracted international attention at the French Festival des 3 Continents. A Time to Live, a Time to Die (1985) was awarded at the Rotterdam Film Festival and received the International Critic’s prize in Berlin. Dust in the Wind (1986) and Daughter of the Nile (1987) are also acclaimed by the critics. In 1989, his A City of Sadness won the Golden Lion at Venice Film Festival. The Puppetmaster (1993) won the Jury prize in Cannes. Most of his following films, Good Men, Good Women (1995), Goodbye South, Goodbye (1996), Flowers of Shanghai (1998), Millennium Mambo (2001), and Three Times (2005) were shown at the Festival de Cannes, where Flight of the Red Balloon opened Un Certain Regard in 2007. As a producer, Hou Hsiao Hsien has helped bring about classics as Edward Yang’s Taipei Story, Zhang Yimou’s Raise the Red Lantern.