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Hou Hsiao-hsien

by InRO Staff Feature Articles Film Year in Review

Top 100 Films of the Decade: 25-1

January 29, 2020

The Last Word from Your Editor, Sam C. Mac: With the 2010s officially over, the time seems right for another departure: after 12 years (with a small break in the middle), I’m stepping down as this site’s Editor-in-Chief, to be succeeded by co-founder (and unapologetic Iron & Wine-lover) Luke Gorham. I don’t plan on getting too personal here, but I do want to say that, as long as I’ve been an adult, InRO has been my baby. And so it does…

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#KickingtheCanon by Lawrence Garcia Film

A City of Sadness | Hou Hsiao-hsien

If A City of Sadness represents Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien’s greatest achievement to date — an assessment that its Venice Golden Lion and long-standing reputation would seem to support — this is in part because Hou’s oblique, elliptical approach to narrative creates an astounding frisson with the film’s…

February 16, 2019
by InRO Staff Feature Articles Film Year in Review

Top 10 Films of 2015

A typical year spent traversing the cinematic landscape results in straddling some kind of line: one foot confidently marches off into the future while the other remains firmly planted in the past. Innovation is an organic byproduct of any artform, but so is adherence to a certain classicism, and 2015…

December 31, 2015
by InRO Staff Feature Articles Film Year in Review

Top 10 Performances of 2015

Evaluating performances is such a deeply subjective endeavor that finding a meaningful consensus can often feel like an impossibility. Truly extraordinary ones tend to work in lockstep with their respective films in ways that less impactful ones don’t, but in these cases sometimes that means our…

December 31, 2015
by Sam C. Mac Film

The Assassin | Hou Hsiao-hsien

At the core of Hou Hsiao-hsien’s cinema is a deep investment in the rift formed between an independent Taiwan and a possessive mainland China. Tender stories of unrequited romance (Three Times, Flowers of Shanghai) become bracingly political, and coming-of-age stories (The Boys from Feng Kuei, Millennium…

October 13, 2015
In Review | Online film and music criticism
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