As per our current Database, Hsiao-Hsien Hou is still alive (as per Wikipedia, Last update: May 10, 2020).
Currently, Hsiao-Hsien Hou is 77 years, 7 months and 14 days old. Hsiao-Hsien Hou will celebrate 78rd birthday on a Tuesday 8th of April 2025. Below we countdown to Hsiao-Hsien Hou upcoming birthday.
| Popular As | Hsiao-Hsien Hou |
| Occupation | Producer |
| Age | 77 years old |
| Zodiac Sign | Aries |
| Born | April 8, 1947 (Meixian, Guangdong, China) |
| Birthday | April 8 |
| Town/City | Meixian, Guangdong, China |
| Nationality | China |
Hsiao-Hsien Hou’s zodiac sign is Aries. According to astrologers, the presence of Aries always marks the beginning of something energetic and turbulent. They are continuously looking for dynamic, speed and competition, always being the first in everything - from work to social gatherings. Thanks to its ruling planet Mars and the fact it belongs to the element of Fire (just like Leo and Sagittarius), Aries is one of the most active zodiac signs. It is in their nature to take action, sometimes before they think about it well.
Hsiao-Hsien Hou was born in the Year of the Pig. Those born under the Chinese Zodiac sign of the Pig are extremely nice, good-mannered and tasteful. They’re perfectionists who enjoy finer things but are not perceived as snobs. They enjoy helping others and are good companions until someone close crosses them, then look out! They’re intelligent, always seeking more knowledge, and exclusive. Compatible with Rabbit or Goat.
Of the ten films that Hsiao-Hsien Hou directed between 1980 and 1989, seven received best film or best director awards from prestigious international films festivals in Venice, Berlin, Hawaii, and the Festival of the Three Continents in Nantes.
In a 1988 worldwide critics' poll, Hou was championed as "one of the three directors most crucial to the future of cinema."Hou's birthplace, a county in Kuangtung Province, had been well-known as an intellectual center in China.
In 1948, his family moved to Taiwan and, like all children raised there, he went through an extremely demanding educational system. In 1969, he studied film at the National Taiwan Arts Academy. After graduation in 1972, he worked briefly as a salesman.
Later he began his film career as a scriptwriter and assistant director.Hou's films are often concerned with his experiences of growing up in rural Taiwan in the 1950s and 1960s. The 1950s marked a time in which refugee families from the mainland were struggling painfully for survival, while the 1960s saw the beginning of the most significant social change in modern Taiwan.
The economic boom of that period meant the beginning of Western-style industrialization and urbanization. The normal frustrations of growing up were aggravated by these complicated changes, and Hou's films are intimate expressions of those experiences.
His emotionally charged work is replete with highly nostalgic images and beautiful compositions; their power lies in his total identification with the past and the fate of families who suffered through difficult times.
His stories, often written in collaboration with scriptwriters T'ien-wen Chu and Nien-Jen Wu, depict the complex intertwining of the different strands that shape the lives of individuals. In a poetic yet relaxed style, they reflect a deep sympathy and a profound humanism.
Elliptical storytelling
Extreme long takes and minimal camera movement
Concentrating the action on the edge of the frame
Use of trains
Imagery of a sensual beauty
Often collaborates with Chu Tien-Wen and Mark Lee Ping-Bin
Mostly deals with the history of the past century of Taiwan
Minimalism in storytelling
