Taiwan Film Directors

This is a well-illustrated, in-depth study of the most celebrated film directors from Taiwan and the development of Taiwanese film. Focusing on the extraordinarily rich work of four contemporary filmmakers-Ang Lee, Edward Yang, Hou Hsiao-hsien, and Tsai Ming-liang-the authors explore how these filmmakers broke from tradition, creating a cinema that is both personal and insistent on examining Taiwan's complex history. Following the relaxation of government control of the film industry in the 1980s, Taiwan's directors sprung from relative obscurity to international acclaim. Yeh and Davis trace this development, analyzing Taiwanese film from the end of World War II to the present. Featuring stills, anecdotes, and close readings of films, the authors consider the influence of Hong Kong and martial arts films, directors' experiments with autobiography, the shifting fortunes of the Taiwanese film industry, and Taiwan cinema in the context of international cinema's aesthetics and business practices.