Hou Hsiao-hsien

About

Leading figure in Taiwan's New Wave movement and director of intimate dramas like The Puppetmaster and Flight of the Red Balloon.

Before Fame

He began working as a screenwriting collaborator with the renowned author Chu Tien-Wen in the 1980s.

Trivia

He was voted Director of the Decade for the 1990s by film critics in a poll that was organized by The Village Voice and Film Comment.

Family Life

His family fled the Chinese Civil War to Taiwan the year after he was born.

Associated With

His first foray into western films, 2007's Flight of the Red Balloon, starred famed French actress Juliette Binoche.