This retrospective of Hou Hsiao Hsien, which is presented at Filmoteca de Catalunya, counts on the collaboration of the Asian Film Festival. Barcelona. Hou Hsiao-Hsie, born in continental China (Meixian, Guangdong, 1947), is a film director and representative of new wave of Taiwanese cinema.<\/strong><\/p>\n With \u201cThe Assassin\u201d, this director, representing the new wave of Taiwanese cinema,\u00a0born in mainland China (Meixian, Guangdong, 1947), was for many of his current\u00a0followers a big discovery, thanks to the Best Director Award that was granted in the\u00a0edition of the Cannes Festival of 2015. This discovery was related to the background\u00a0aesthetics that prevails in his filmography, with more than twenty titles, from his\u00a0beginning, in 1980, when he made his debut feature, until nowadays. This retrospective\u00a0traces the film-maker\u2019s career from \u201cThe boys from Fengkuei\u201d (1983), his fourth film, to\u00a0\u201cThe Assassin\u201d (2015). Hou Hisao-Hsien is now carrying out his newest project, and he\u00a0will not be able to attend the presentation of his retrospective for this reason. In spite of\u00a0being repeatedly awarded in festivals such as the ones held in Venice and in Cannes, his\u00a0filmography is far from being known in the West as it would be expected of someone\u00a0who is the author of films such as \u201cA City of Sadness\u201d (Leone d\u2019Oro, in Venice, 1989),\u00a0\u201cthe Puppetmaster\u201d (Special Jury Prize, in Cannes, 1993) or \u201cThe Assassin\u201d, already\u00a0mentioned.<\/p>\n In 1995, the San Sebastian Film Festival dedicated him a retrospective, but since then to\u00a0date, Hou Hsiao-Hsien has made more than eight titles, few of which have been shown\u00a0on the screens in Spain. The current retrospective of Filmoteca de Catalunya and Casa\u00a0Asia will allow the audience to access some of the most outstanding films concerning the\u00a0poetic that goes through them from beginning to end, as it is perceived in \u201cFlowers of\u00a0Shanghai\u201d (1998), \u201cMillenium Mambo\u201d (2011), which has been so much compared to \u201cIn\u00a0the Mood for Love\u201d by Wong Kar-Wai, \u201cCaf\u00e9 Lumi\u00e8re\u201d (2003), a homage to Yasujiro Ozu,\u00a0or the three romantic tales of \u201cthree Times\u201d (2005), among other titles, fifteen of which\u00a0are now presented in Filmoteca also forming part of the program of the edition of \u201cAsian\u00a0Film Festival. Barcelona\u201d, 2017.<\/p>\n Long sequence shots together with an unparalleled poetic of time are applied in his\u00a0cinematographic stories, which go back to the common past as well as to the individual\u00a0lives of his main characters, whose destiny is usually contextualised in an emotional\u00a0world that is caught among the \u2018I\u2019, the \u2018others\u2019, and a darker real world represented in\u00a0the urban nights in Taipei, and the youngsters that plunge in their artificial paradises.\u00a0However, the same happens when he refers to the underworlds at the end of the\u00a0nineteenth century in \u201cFlowers of Shanghai\u201d, to set an exemple, or in IX century China,\u00a0where the warrior Nie Yianniang (the assassin), belonging to \u201cThe order of assassins\u201d,\u00a0receives her master\u2019s command, and kills the man she loves to fulfil her duty.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Menene Gras Balaguer<\/p>\n Director of the Asian Film Festival. Barcelona<\/p>\n <\/p>\n