When looking back to this director's films, especially his earlier ones, we've found out that we didn't have enough patience to watch them to the end, because these films just felt dated, the directing skill was raw and primitive; the dialog, woody and awkward; the acting by those actors who later had become famous and popular, only showed lousy acting talent that made us wonder how come these actors would have become famous later being A-list ones for so many years.
I don't know what was the purpose Hou liked so much to paint a picture of the earlier Taiwan. Maybe he thought the Taiwanese during the earlier time were more simple-minded, sincere, honest, naive, pure. The livelihood during that era was what the modern-day Taiwanese should have kept, even a martial law was in effect at that time, but it rarely affected and bothered the Taiwanese to have a normal daily life so long as you didn't openly against the KMT government. The martial law was a necessary evil during that time to prevent the possible invasion of the Chinese Communist force from Mainland China, but the people, the families, the kids, the society didn't feel they were controlled or suppressed by the martial law. When looking back, if compared what the livelihood people in Taiwan went on and went through with what the Chinese people in China by the iron-clad and atrocious cleansing process of the Chinese Communist Party, Taiwan, to most of the older generation Taiwanese, although poor and meager, was still a rather paradise-like haven, except to those fewer who didn't want to recognize and appreciate what the KMT government really tried to improve the living standard for all of the Taiwanese people and later became the DPP extremists.
Hou's films for the earlier Taiwanese livelihood and their people, the simple and innocent bygones with deep touch of melancholy reminiscence and retrospection were good, but from today's viewpoint and standard, the screenplays he crafted, the way he directed, those actors he signed on to play those roles he created...all of these are simply too outdated, primitive, raw and awkward. Those paintings might look good on the wall, but if you walk up to them too close, you'd find all the brushes were just too awkward to watch.
Again, we, my wife and I, both agreed at the same moment that the dialog and the acting by those leading actors were simply unbearable, so we've decided unanimously not to watch after 30 minutes' torture.
