There are certain 'important' directors who's work I always enter with a level of excitement whether its to: "change my perspective on art/cinema" to "change me as a person," etc., HHH is one of those filmmakers. I slowly started making my way through his films, starting with Millennium Mambo, and felt these extreme waves of emotion, that hit me like a truck at the very beginning of the film; but I started slowly drifting away and eventually lost the feeling I had initially felt. The same goes for Tropical Malady as well as the other HHH films I've seen (The Assassin, Goodbye South Goodbye).

I always tend to hit some sort of wall and ask myself, is this what I'm supposed to be feeling? And you might say that's a stupid question to ask but it’s true. There are other filmmakers I've hit this wall with, to name a few: Weerasethakul, Brakhage, Snow, Straub/Huillet, Lynch, Kieslowski, Tarkovsky. There are probably numerous others I'm forgetting, but the main point I'm trying to get across is that I tend to doubt myself, looking for something that might not even exist within these films, and when I don't find said thing, I'm left completely dumbfounded. With HHH, I found myself hyper-analyzing and searching for something completely out of reach, but with Daughter of the Nile, I chose not to speak with it, but to let it speak with me

Its bizarre thinking of myself as someone "new" to film who started watching movies consistently a little more than 2 years ago; and to be completely honest, these past two years have been some of the most exciting and transformative years of my life, seeing myself morph into the art that I resonate with, and learning more about the world as I continue move forward. 20 might be a scary number for me, coming up in June, and as terrifying as it is moving into the more independent years of my life, I could not be more excited for the future

There are certain 'important' directors who's work I always enter with a level of excitement whether its to: "change my perspective on art/cinema" to "change me as a person," etc., HHH is one of those filmmakers. I slowly started making my way through his films, starting with Millennium Mambo, and felt these extreme waves of emotion, that hit me like a truck at the very beginning of the film; but I started slowly drifting away and eventually lost the feeling I had initially felt. The same goes for Tropical Malady as well as the other HHH films I've seen (The Assassin, Goodbye South Goodbye).

I always tend to hit some sort of wall and ask myself, is this what I'm supposed to be feeling? And you might say that's a stupid question to ask but it’s true. There are other filmmakers I've hit this wall with, to name a few: Weerasethakul, Brakhage, Snow, Straub/Huillet, Lynch, Kieslowski, Tarkovsky. There are probably numerous others I'm forgetting, but the main point I'm trying to get across is that I tend to doubt myself, looking for something that might not even exist within these films, and when I don't find said thing, I'm left completely dumbfounded. With HHH, I found myself hyper-analyzing and searching for something completely out of reach, but with Daughter of the Nile, I chose not to speak with it, but to let it speak with me

Its bizarre thinking of myself as someone "new" to film who started watching movies consistently a little more than 2 years ago; and to be completely honest, these past two years have been some of the most exciting and transformative years of my life, seeing myself morph into the art that I resonate with, and learning more about the world as I continue move forward. 20 might be a scary number for me, coming up in June, and as terrifying as it is moving into the more independent years of my life, I could not be more excited for the future

Really liked the visual style as always with Hsiao-Hsien but the plot just seems so soapy when it came to the gang stuff which made it a bit boring in parts. Still enjoyable.

Really liked the visual style as always with Hsiao-Hsien but the plot just seems so soapy when it came to the gang stuff which made it a bit boring in parts. Still enjoyable.

Really liked the visual style as always with Hsiao-Hsien but the plot just seems so soapy when it came to the gang stuff which made it a bit boring in parts. Still enjoyable.

Really liked the visual style as always with Hsiao-Hsien but the plot just seems so soapy when it came to the gang stuff which made it a bit boring in parts. Still enjoyable.

there is something so poetic about working at kfc

there is something so poetic about working at kfc

Now imagine you’ve got a craving for a Hou movie but would like to substitute the outside force that’s undermining the family unit from war/political strife to crime - this is that film. It’s a well formed vision, as always, this time with 80s trappings: roofless Jeeps, blue jeans, and KFC, but the story doesn’t hit home as much as his other works. It’s Taipei Mean Streets but with the focus on the effects of disorder on the home, the strained family, in particular a grown sister who’s struggling to keep it all together whilst being complicit in her brother’s crimes. The silly and wise grandpa is there to scold and/or ask for money. There’s a subplot involving a university teacher threatened with losing his job for political reasons - I’m not quite sure of the connection to the main plot. It’s visually refined but without the emotional whollop typical of Hou.

Recommended

Now imagine you’ve got a craving for a Hou movie but would like to substitute the outside force that’s undermining the family unit from war/political strife to crime - this is that film. It’s a well formed vision, as always, this time with 80s trappings: roofless Jeeps, blue jeans, and KFC, but the story doesn’t hit home as much as his other works. It’s Taipei Mean Streets but with the focus on the effects of disorder on the home, the strained family, in particular a grown sister who’s struggling to keep it all together whilst being complicit in her brother’s crimes. The silly and wise grandpa is there to scold and/or ask for money. There’s a subplot involving a university teacher threatened with losing his job for political reasons - I’m not quite sure of the connection to the main plot. It’s visually refined but without the emotional whollop typical of Hou.

Recommended