Hou Hsiao: Last News

It’s official: Hou Hsiao-hsien has retired from filmmaking. Deadline reports that the Taiwanese filmmaker’s family released a statement earlier this week that confirms he’s retiring after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The immediate family of leading Taiwanese film director Hou Hsiao-hsien said on Wednesday that he had retired from filmmaking due to illness and is now living peacefully in retirement. They said that their family-run company remains active and in business. The statement (see below) was issued in response to news articles earlier this week that followed an introductory speech given in London by critic and curator Tony Rayns before a screening of 1985 title “A Time to Live and a Time to Die,” one of Hou’s best-known features. Rayns was reported to have said that Hou has dementia, will not direct again and that members of Hou’s company had lost their jobs. The family statement – signed by Cao Baofeng, Hou’s wife, son Isaac Hou and daughter Bess Hou – explained that Hou had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease before the COVID pandemic and that COVID had, to their surprise, worsened the problems. They continued by saying that Hou has recovered from the COVID-related complications and is now resting quietly at home with his family.

Vivienne Chow Director: Kai Ko Producers: Ko Yao-zong, Lu Wei-chun, Giddens Ko, Midi Z, Molly Fang Key cast: Berant Zhu, Kent Tsai, Edison Song Actor Kai Ko’s directorial debut revolves around three young men who decide to bond with each other as sworn brothers as they graduate from high school by sharing dark secrets. The film’s Berant Zhu won the supporting actor prize at the 2022 Golden Horse Awards. Sales: Harvest 9 Road Entertainment

At 75 years of age and having already directed nearly 20 films, at this point in his career, Chinese-born Taiwanese film director and screenwriter Hou Hsiao-hsien delivers a film every ten years or so or whenever he’s damn ready. The last film he made, “The Assassin” (2015; our review), possibly the artiest, most meditative wuxia film ever made and something of a masterpiece (I don’t really make top 10 lists anymore, but the last time I did one, “The Assassin” was on it).

Taiwanese filmmaker Hou Hsiao-hsien is arguably one of the greatest filmmakers in the world (he was voted “Director of the Decade” for the 1990s in a poll of American and international critics by The Village Voice and Film Comment). But his output of late has been so incredibly slow and sparse; it’s arguably put a damper on his global acclaim outside the world of cinephiles.

Taiwanese filmmaker Hou Hsiao-hsien is arguably one of the greatest filmmakers in the world (he was voted “Director of the Decade” for the 1990s in a poll of American and international critics by The Village Voice and Film Comment). But his output of late has been so incredibly slow and sparse; it’s arguably put a damper on his global acclaim outside the world of cinephiles.