“Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien, who soon turns 68, is a key figure in Taiwan’s New Wave Cinema of the ’80s and an international filmmaker whose influence runs deep and wide. Informed by unforced compassion and precision, his elliptical narratives are the opposite of spoon-fed entertainment. Among the contemporary art-house directors who have expressed their debt to him are Jim Jarmusch and Olivier Assayas. He is the subject of a retrospective by the UCLA Film & Television Archive April 3-June 20.” Read more here and here.