Quote:
A Complex Taiwan Tale Needs a Key
In a series of eloquent, dazzling and demanding films, the director Hou Hsiao-hsien has depicted the history of Taiwan through individuals with deeply moving life stories. The island itself — a Japanese colony before World War II, then controlled by the Nationalist Chinese with violent repression during the cold-war years — has come to seem his most treasured character. “City of Sadness,” shown at the New York Film festival in 1989, tells Taiwan’s story as a family saga. The poetic “Puppetmaster,” shown at the festival two years ago, layers Taiwan’s history with the biography of an aged puppet maker. Now, in “Good Men, Good Women,” Mr. Hou depicts Taiwan in an even more complex way, blending history with fiction, and juxtaposing the present with recent memories. He even includes a fact-based, black-and-white movie within this elegantly shot film. “Good Men, Good Women” will be shown as part of the New York Film Festival this afternoon at 2. It is one of the most richly imagined and also one of the most difficult films in the series.

The film is truly baffling unless you walk in knowing about the plot and characters and about the chronology that Mr. Hou shatters then asks his viewers to reconstruct. At the center is Liang Ching, a thoroughly contemporary actress who is receiving frightening faxes. Someone has stolen her diary, and when they fax copies of its pages back to her, they set off memories of her lover, Ah Wei, a shady character who was murdered several years before. The contemporary scenes and recent flashbacks are shot in bright, harsh colors that suggest the lurid unhappiness of Liang Ching’s life.

Liang Ching is also about to start filming a historical movie called “Good Men, Good Women.” As she prepares to play the heroine, Chiang Bi-yu, we see black-and-white episodes from the movie as she imagines it. In 1940, Chiang Bi-yu and her husband leave Taiwan for mainland China to fight the Japanese who are trying to take over the country. But they are almost executed as spies for the Japanese. After the war, back in Taiwan, they become political victims of the Nationalists.

Chiang Bi-yu’s story is told chronologically, with long sections scattered throughout the film. The product of Liang Ching’s imagination, this movie-in-a-movie is a stately, historical drama, the exact opposite of the sophisticated, fragmented story Mr. Hou is creating in the film’s larger view.

Using his typical style, Mr. Hou’s camera takes a serene, often distant position from all he observes, slowly allowing the pieces to fit together and the emotional resonance to make itself felt. The sad Liang Ching sees herself in the character she plays. In a flashback she remembers discussing a possible pregnancy and abortion with Ah Wei; in the black-and-white movie, Chiang Bi-yu has a son and gives him up so she can go on fighting the Japanese. By the end, Liang Ching’s apparently tenuous connection to Chiang Bi-yu evokes a stunning emotional response. “Good Men, Good Women” is not obscure for its own sake; it is a rigorous work of art whose mysteries are worth unraveling. GOOD MEN, GOOD WOMEN Directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien; written (in Mandarin, Taiwanese, Japanese, Cantonese and Fujian, with English subtitles) by Chu Tien-wen, based on an original play by Chiang Bi-yu and Lan Bo-chow; director of photography, Chen Hwai-en; edited by Liao Ching-song; music by Mr. Chen and Chiang Hsiao-wen; produced by Katsuhiro Mizuno, Shozo Ichiyama, King Jieh-wen and Ben Hsieh. At Alice Tully Hall today at 2 P.M. as part of the 33d New York Film Festival. Running time: 108 minutes. This film is not rated. WITH: Annie Shizuka Inoh (Liang Ching/ Chiang Bi-yu), Lim Giong (Chung Hao-tung) and Jack Kao (Ah Wei)
Caryn James, NY Times, October 7, 1995

Good.Men.Good.Women.1995.DVDRip.x264-SMz.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1h 48mn
Size: 	1.59 GiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	684x460 ~> 817x460
Aspect ratio:  	16:9
Frame rate: 	23.976 fps
Bit rate: 	1 850 Kbps
BPP: 	0.245
Audio
#1:  	Chinese AC-3 @ 256 Kbps

https://nitro.download/view/2CA575CDFD0BB7E/Good.Men.Good.Women.1995.DVDRip.x264-SMz.mkv

Language(s):Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, Min Nan
Subtitles:English, Japanese, Chinese

The post Hsiao-hsien Hou – Hao nan hao nu AKA Good Men, Good Women (1995) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Nick Schager – Lessons of Darkness wrote:
As the new millennium dawns, Vicky (Qi Shu) balances separate love affairs with abusive, drug-smoking Hao-Hao (Chun-hao Tuan) and paternal petty gangster Jack (Jack Kao) in Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s exquisite Millennium Mambo. Narrated (in hindsight) by Vicky from the year 2011, the film’s splintered, flashback-heavy narrative nominally concerns Vicky’s tumultuous two romances, though the storyline is – even more than usual for Hou – largely inconsequential. Supposedly part of a trilogy about Taiwanese youth culture, Millennium Mambo is similar to Hou’s superior Goodbye South, Goodbye in that both chart small-timers’ aimless search for money, love, or, at least, some fleeting feeling of genuine human connection. As is his custom, Hou frames his bored, detached protagonist (who, in a telling early scene, lies motionless as Hao-Hao sexually ravages her body) in doorways and hallways, thus visualizing Vicky’s inability (or unwillingness) to abandon her vacant, static existence for something more fulfilling. Nonetheless, Vicky’s narration alludes to her eventual evolution, as does the ravishing opening sequence (seemingly set in 2011) in which she prances down a deserted walkway and – one can sense – away from the tedium and madness of her former life. Despite its techno-enhanced rhythm and stunning cinematography by In the Mood for Love’s Mark Lee Ping-bin – who uses bold, primary colors to create a pulsating vision of Taiwan nightlife – there’s a noticeable redundancy about Hou’s latest. But as proven by moments like Vicky leaving a temporary face-print in the snow – one of the film’s many stirring visions of the transitory nature of life – even a minor Hou effort is brimming with poignant artistry.

Cian si man po aka Millennium Mambo - Hsiao-Hsien Hou (2001).mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1 h 45 min
Size: 	3.79 GiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	1024x554 
Aspect ratio:  	1.85:1
Frame rate: 	23.976 fps
Bit rate: 	4 501 kb/s
BPP: 	0.331
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#1:  	Chinese 5.1ch AC-3 @ 640 kb/s (Fixed audio from DVD TF1)

https://nitro.download/view/E756ABB37BAAA5A/Cian_si_man_po_aka_Millennium_Mambo_-_Hsiao-Hsien_Hou_(2001).mkv

Language(s):Chinese
Subtitles:English, French, Swedish

The post Hsiao-Hsien Hou – Qian xi man bo aka Millennium Mambo (2001) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Tony Rayns in Time Out Film Guide wrote:
When Office Kitano commissioned Shinozaki to record Kitano’s work on Kikujiro from the start of shooting to the screening of the ‘A’ copy, they knew he wouldn’t do a standard ‘Making of’. Since Kitano shot the film more or less in sequence and improvised a lot, Shinozaki is able to turn his documentary into an authentic ‘bootleg’: an anthology of out-takes, mistakes and deleted scenes which adds up to a ‘parallel’ version of the film itself. It’s also a very candid portrait of Kitano in his self-deprecatory prime – especially when nearly lost for words during a social chat with Hou Xiaoxian. One caveat: Kitano himself sings the song under the end credits.

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https://nitro.download/view/A8EEC9F9097A5A7/jam_session.avi
https://nitro.download/view/0A4B321CD25790D/jam_session.fr.srt
https://nitro.download/view/869498FF4A55F6C/jam_session.nl.srt

Language(s):Japanese
Subtitles:French,Dutch

The post Makoto Shinozaki – Jam Session (1999) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Three vignettes from three different directors that tell stories of ordinary people during Taiwan’s Cold War period.

Quote:
Hou Hsiao-hsien’s contribution to The Sandwich Man, an omnibus based on contemporary Taiwanese author Huang Chun-ming’s stories of the working class in 1960s Taiwan, and featuring then new-generation Taiwanese filmmakers that also includes Zhuang Xiang Zeng and Wan Jen, The Son’s Big Doll is a spare, elegantly conceived, understatedly realized, provocative, and insightful portrait of sacrifice, perseverance, and human dignity. Using asequential flashbacks, narrative ellipses, anecdotal conversations, and prefiguring sound (and dialogue), Hou incorporates complex, yet minimalist structure that would come to define his distinctive cinema.

The.Sandwich.Man.1983.BDRIP.576p.x264.FLAC.KJNU.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1 h 46 min
Size: 	2.47 GiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	1024x552 
Aspect ratio:  	1.85:1
Frame rate: 	24.000 fps
Bit rate: 	3 000 kb/s
BPP: 	0.221
Audio
#1:  	Chinese 2.0ch FLAC @ 323 kb/s (Mandarin)

https://nitro.download/view/9D24BC50637011B/The.Sandwich.Man.1983.BDRIP.576p.x264.FLAC.KJNU.mkv
or
https://nitro.download/view/5495CC0B58F3BBB/The.Sandwich.Man.1983.BDRIP.576p.x264.FLAC.KJNU.part1.rar
https://nitro.download/view/F7599DAC97F6BBC/The.Sandwich.Man.1983.BDRIP.576p.x264.FLAC.KJNU.part2.rar
https://nitro.download/view/434B00DE166E82D/The.Sandwich.Man.1983.BDRIP.576p.x264.FLAC.KJNU.part3.rar

Language(s):Mandarin, Min Nan
Subtitles:English

The post Hsiao-Hsien Hou & Chuang-Hsiang Tseng & Jen Wan – Er zi de da wan ou AKA The Sandwich Man (1983) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Shochiku Studio of Japan commissioned several directors to create films reflecting on the themes of Ozu Yasujiro on the centenary of the director’s birth. Here we find Inoue Yoko, an apparently single young woman who is pregnant, searching for a small cafe that was often visited by a Taiwanese composer whose life she is researching. She herself is back from Taiwan and receiving help from a book store clerk, but she first has to contend with the her own reality which includes her parents.

Cafe.Lumiere.2003.WEBRIP.576p.x264.AC3.KJNU.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1 h 43 min
Size: 	2.33 GiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	1024x554 
Aspect ratio:  	1.85:1
Frame rate: 	23.976 fps
Bit rate: 	3 000 kb/s
BPP: 	0.221
Audio
#1:  	Japanese 2.0ch AC-3 @ 224 kb/s

https://nitro.download/view/30FDEF23C3B0678/Cafe.Lumiere.2003.WEBRIP.576p.x264.AC3.KJNU.mkv

Language(s):Japanese
Subtitles:English

The post Hsiao-Hsien Hou – Kôhî jikô AKA Café Lumière (2003) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Synopsis:
Ah-Ching and his friends have just finished school in their island fishing village, and now spend most of their time drinking and fighting. Three of them decide to go to the port city of Kaohsiung to look for work. They find an apartment through relatives, and Ah-Ching is attracted to the girlfriend of a neighbor. There they face the harsh realities of the big city.

2.11GB | 1h 39m | 1024×552 | mkv

https://nitro.download/view/AC4668094DF88E2/Feng_gui_lai_de_ren_(1983).mkv

Language:Mandarin
Subtitles:English

The post Hsiao-Hsien Hou – Feng gui lai de ren AKA The Boys from Fengkuei (1983) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

One of Hong Kong’s most influential filmmakers, Ann Hui, becomes a “star” for the first time in Man Lim-chung’s directorial debut. A forerunner of the New Wave, Hui’s tumultuous, forty-year career is an unequivocal testimony to her unyielding dedication to filmmaking, and her expedition into the metamorphic city. This biopic probes into the acclaimed director’s idiosyncratic world, where we witness her rashness and goofiness, as well as her humanistic concerns for the everyday nobodies which make her films so moving.

5.28GB | 1m 58s | 1920×1080 | mkv

https://nitro.download/view/F0AFA3652B19C48/keep.rolling.2020.1080p.bluray.x264-bipolar.mkv

Language:Mandarin,Cantonese
Subtitles:English

The post Lim Chung Man – Hao Hao Pai Dian Ying AKA Keep Rolling (2020) first appeared on Cinema of the World.