Hou Hsiao-Hsien

Went to go see Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s newest film FLIGHT OF THE RED BALLOON yesterday. It was pretty great. The loose plot revolves around 3 characters in modern day Paris: a professional puppeteer, an aspiring filmmaker and a young boy who occasionally sees a red balloon.

If you’re a newcomer to director Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s work or have been put off previously by his unortohdox style, FLIGHT OF THE RED BALLOON may be a good place to start. He most resembles a grittier late-Yasujiro Ozu with equal the chops though Hou's worldview is more hopeful and based on current day life. By selectively showing the complex details that shapes people’s lives through distanced and elliptical storytelling, he creates a charged atmosphere that makes one reflect deep thinking about your own. Sometimes even profoundly prescient thinking. His more recent films are so quietly vivid and incisive about people and the historical context of modern living they can even hurt. This one is a commissioned work for the Musee d’Orsay so there's a bit more melodrama and some lip service paid to pie-eyed idealism (all shown in the trailer) but the overall effect is the same.