Hou Hsiao Hsien Box Set

[spencerw]

Actually, this was originally supposed to come out last year (the date on amazon.fr says July 1, 2005), and it's not MK2, it's GCTHV

Alas, led up the garden path by high hopes, quick reading, and the (false) MK2 cover.

[Barmy]

How appropriate that Bresson has taken over this thread lol.

[SHOCKMASTER]

Nobody knows of any bootleg sites that would have THE DEVIL, PROBABLY...?

[Barmy]

For what it's worth, you can get the New Yorker VHS of "Devil" (with subtitles) at Amazon.com. They have several sellers offering it.

[otis]

Finally getting the chance to see five of Hou's films this week. Just one question: how do you pronounce his name? Don't want to make a fool of myself when discussing his staging strategies in the bar afterwards.

[Michael Kerpan]

Pronouncing Hou Hsiao Hsien: -- more or less -- Ho (as in "hoe") Show (as in "shower") Shen

[otis]

Thanks, Michael. You've saved me from talking a lot of hooey.

[Michael Kerpan]

Which five films are you seeing?

And have you read Bordwell's HHH chapter in "Figures Traced In Light"?

[otis]

The Boys from Fengkwei
Summer at Grandpa's
A Time to Live, a Time to Die
Daughter of the Nile
The Puppetmaster

Read (and loved) the Bordwell book last year, but I hadn't seen any Hou at the time. Since seen Good Men, Good Women and about half of Goodbye South, Goodbye on TV. Found GMGW a bit impenetrable on first viewing, really enjoyed GSG. Looking forward to a bit of full immersion this week.

Have you seen the online supplements to Figures Traced in Light on Bordwell's website? The one on Hou focuses on his "telephoto aesthetic":

[Michael Kerpan]

Jealous about "Nile" -- as this and "Green Green Grass of Home" are my two "missing" HHH films.

I actually loved GMGW on first viewing, even if I didn't quite follow it all.

Still waiting to see a proper version of "Puppetmaster" -- as the US DVD was a pan/scanned one.

Bordwell's online supplements are quite nice -- especially since he could use color for the HHH one (which he couldn't use in his book).

[Barmy]

His new Air France commercial is his greatest film.

But only because it's 60 seconds long.

From Time Out New York:

Taiwanese auteur Hou Hsiao-hsien, reputed for his sensuous, leisurely paced films, may not be the kind of director you'd imagine shooting a commercial—and he's certainly the last one whose work you'd expect to see on American network television (his latest feature, Three Times, opens in NYC on Wednesday 26). But Hou's just made his debut in advertising with a spot for Air France's new worldwide campaign, and it's expected to air in the U.S. Shot in Thailand, “Le Pontonâ€

[Jeff LeVine]

Click here and go to Nouvelle campagne publicitaire / voir le film. Hou's is Le Ponton. They also have a short interview with the director (with English subs) and a 3 minute making of spot.

[iangj]

Pronouncing Hou Hsiao Hsien: -- more or less -- Ho (as in "hoe") Show (as in "shower") Shen

The "Ho" is fine, but you need an "ee" sound (hence the "i") in the other two.
Try saying it quickly:

Shee-ow (as in "how") Shee-en

Then, there are the tones: Hou RISING Hsiao FALLING Hsien RISING.

[tryavna]

Pronouncing Hou Hsiao Hsien: -- more or less -- Ho (as in "hoe") Show (as in "shower") Shen

The "Ho" is fine, but you need an "ee" sound (hence the "i") in the other two.
Try saying it quickly:

Shee-ow (as in "how") Shee-en

Then, there are the tones: Hou RISING Hsiao FALLING Hsien RISING.

What a crazy language! Why can't it follow logical rules like "i" before "e" -- except after "c." Oh, and when sounding like "a" as in "neighbor" and "weigh." #-o

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

The Air France thing isn't unprecedented -- I recall reading that he also did an ad for a Japanese chemical company in the early '90s that boiled down to "we are very concerned about the acid rain problem that we helped cause in the first place" (or something to that effect). He's also done some beer commercials in Taiwan. Hou's gotta eat too, I guess.

[Barmy]

Hou's gotta eat too?

So do whores.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

Hou's gotta eat too?

So do whores.

The joke was pretty damn thin to begin with, but it really sucks all the fun out of it when you explicitly spell it out like that.

[obloquy]

Hou's gotta eat too?

So do whores.

Quit being a nerd. What's the big deal with directing a commercial?

Edit: Further, I think it says something about Hou that he doesn't consider himself too fucking grand to do a commercial. You evidently think that it damages his status as an artist, but it seems to me that it only reveals that he doesn't delude himself about his own importance.

[tavernier]

Hou's gotta eat too?

So do whores.

Quit being a nerd. What's the big deal with directing a commercial?

Edit: Further, I think it says something about Hou that he doesn't consider himself too fucking grand to do a commercial. You evidently think that it damages his status as an artist, but it seems to me that it only reveals that he doesn't delude himself about his own importance.

Fellini, Woody and Kurosawa (among others) did commercials....I guess they were (are) whores too.

[Barmy]

As I said before, that commercial is Hou's most watchable flick.

[tavernier]

As I said before, that commercial is Hou's most watchable flick.

After CITY OF SADNESS and PUPPETMASTER, maybe....

[jcelwin]

Just finished watching 'Three Times', an excellent film. I watched the Asian DVD version, reviewed by DVD Times. Unlike DVD Times, however, I think that the loud 'hiss' throughout most of the film (the first hour and seventeen minutes) is quite annoying. I don't think that it deserves a '6/10' for sound, more like 3. Astounding that they didn't bother to find a better print for the sound (Image is reasonable, though) since it is such a new movie. Anyway, although the 'hiss' is really loud and annoying, it is probably still worth a look if you like his films and can't wait for a better version.

[Lemmy Caution]

There's actually a box set here (China) of all of HHH's films. I think it is 12 or 13 discs. It looks like it was originally put together for the Japanese market, so I'm not sure if it has English sub-titles. If anyone is interested I can try to get a shop to open it to check the sub-titles and quality. If it's good, I would be willing to send it off for a very reasonable price.

I've been meaning to try to track down a few of his films individually, and see if I like them, before picking up the box for myself.

[Lemmy Caution]

Well, I checked this evening, and the box set doesn't have English sub-titles. It contains 12 HHH films, from 1973-2005. There's another similar box of 12 with a different cover, but judging by the Japanese writing, it looks like the same deal. I guess if it did have Englsih sub-titles, it'd be available all over eBay already.

[Michael Kerpan]

I still need "Green Green Grass of Home" -- and "Daughter of the Nile" in any form I can get them.

(I already have unsubbed DVDs of the other early films).