Early Hou Hsiao-hsien Cinema

Spotlight on the first four feature films of Hou Hsiao-hsien:

Cute Girl (1980)

Cheerful Wind (1981)

The Green, Green Grass of Home (1982)

The Boys from Fengkuei (1983)

It has been 10 years since Hou Hsiao-hsien’s last film The Assassin (2015). While I await his new film (which I hope will still be made), I decided to address my cinematic gap by seeing his first four features.

Romance, music, mischief and laughter

If one didn’t see Hou Hsiao-hsien’s name on the credits, one would never know the master filmmaker has directed these films. The four films don’t bear his trademark of long takes nor are they contemplative dramas exploring historical / political episodes. Instead, the first three films, Cute Girl, Cheerful Wind, The Green, Green Grass of Home are playful lighthearted romantic films with songs featuring prominently in the first two films. All three films also highlight the innocence and calm countryside life unlike the city life depicted in Hou Hsiao-hsien’s later films. The Green, Green Grass of Home is also a coming-of-age film while The Boys from Fengkuei explores the life of teenagers/young adults and is an extension of a coming-of-age template. The Boys from Fengkuei is the first film out of this quartet that shows signs of Hou Hsiao-hsien’s directorial touch and can actually be considered a transition film leading to his subsequent auteur style.

Cute Girl is a romantic film, where the young couple’s romance is not approved by her family as they have plans for her to get married elsewhere. The film’s plot is much more commonplace of that was shown in numerous Hindi language films from the 1970-80s. In addition, the film’s execution with laidback scenarios with no villains and quiet simple countryside or city life recalls the style of Indian master directors Basu Chatterjee, Hrishikesh Mukherjee whose films featured middle-class Indians trying to navigate love and career. The presence of songs in Cute Girl also ties the film to that of those by Chatterjee and Mukherjee.

Cheerful Wind features the same acting duo of Kenny Bee and Fong Fei-fei as Cute Girl but in a slightly different setting. The plot isn’t far off from that seen in most Indian films of 1980-90s, where a couple’s love is tested after a character regains their vision. In the film, Fong Fei-fei plays a photographer (Hsing-hui) who takes a liking to Kenny Bee’s innocent blindman character (Chin-tai). Later in the film, after an operation, Chin-tai regains his sight and learns that Hsing-hui is already slated to be married off to someone else. Chin-tai doesn’t give up and tries to show his true worth to her, including rushing to the airport before she leaves off for Europe. The airport scene has been used countless times in many romantic films but it may not have been as common back in 1981 as it was post 1990s.

Kenny Bee also stars in The Green, Green Grass of Home but romance is only a small part of the film. Instead, the film is mostly a coming-of-age film where Bee’s character plays a teacher sent to teach at a school in the countryside. The overall sentiment of the film is still lighthearted with humour. Although, the songs are missing like the previous two films and the background music is much more limited than the earlier films.

The Boys from Fengkuei mutes the background score even more than The Green, Green Grass of Home and observes the characters in their moments of mischief, fights, joy, sadness without adding any emotional musical cues. The film even features a motorcycle tracking shot, a sequence found in many subsequent Hou Hsiao-hsien films. Although, there are no long takes in the film and events move at a brisk pace. The film came out in 1983 and the sequences of village life feel like those found in Jia Zhang-ke’s films from 1990s-early 2000s and that of Heng Yang's Binglang (2006).

Ranking all 4 films in order of preference:

1. The Boys from Fengkuei (1983)

2. The Green, Green Grass of Home (1982)

3. Cute Girl (1980)

4. Cheerful Wind (1981)