7 hou hsiao-hsien’s two dreams of light and shadows

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Hou Hsiao-Hsien s two dreams of light and shadows

Wong Ain-ling; Jacob Wong

Online Publication Date: 01 June 2008

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Ain-ling, Wong and Wong, Jacob(2008)'Hou Hsiao-Hsien's two dreams of light and shadows',Inter-Asia CulturalStudies,9:2,251 257

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Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, Volume 9, Number 2, 2008

ISSN 14649373 Print/ISSN 14698447 Online/08/02025107 2008 Taylor & FrancisDOI: 10.1080/14649370801965612

Hou Hsiao-Hsiens two dreams of light and shadows

WONG Ain-ling (Translated by Jacob WONG)

TaylorandFrancis

ABSTRACT In traditional Chinese culture, dreams are often more than a narrative ploy or an exten-sion of the authors imagination, but instruments for musings on life. This essay is an attempt tostudy Hou Hsiao-Hsiens aesthetics in The Puppetmaster and Flowers of Shanghai

from theperspective of dreams. The former is like a lucid dream where the ageing puppet master is the personin the dream, while Hou the filmmaker is the passer-by who saunters into the dream and puts it downon record. The latter, on the other hand, is an inebriated dream where the plan-sequences are weavedtogether by black-ins and black-outs as in a dream from which no one wants to wake.

K

EYWORDS

: dream, traditional opera, desire, seduction

There is no shortage of imaginative worksabout dreams in traditional Chinese culture.Most famously, there are Zhuang ZisButterfly Dream and Dream of Nankewhich have long become ingrained in thesubconscious of the Chinese psyche. Inclassical literature, dreams are integral tothe Ming Dynasty librettist Tang Xianzhus

Peony Pavilion

(1598) and the Qing novelistCao Xueqins The Dream of the Red Chamber

(1784). In both instances, dreams are morethan a narrative ploy or an extension of theauthors imagination, they are instrumentsfor musings on life. The three dreams inthe kunqu

opera repertoire Amazing Dream

,

In Search of a Dream

and Dream of Obsession

continue to mesmerize todays audiences.

Hou Hsiao-Hsien, when he talks abouthis films, likensA City of Sadness

(1989), The

Puppetmaster

(1993) and Good Men, GoodWomen

(1995) as works from the sameperiod:

At that time I had a purpose for GoodMen, Good Women

: it was to be the finalinstallment in the modern Taiwanesehistory trilogy. The first film wasA Cityof Sadness

, whose story takes placebetween 1945 and 1948, followed by The

Puppetmaster

, which is set in the periodof Japanese occupation before 1945, andthe third would take place in the 50sduring the time of White Terror. WhenI finally started working on Good Men,Good Women

I didnt just want it to beabout the fifties, but to find an angle tointegrate it with modernity. But the

truth is I wanted to finish the trilogy,and ended up making up a story tosatisfy the format. Its a bit forced. Inretrospect, it really wasnt necessary.(Assayas et al

. 2000: 116)

Hence, critics often talk about the threefilms as some kind of a cohesive whole. Formy purpose, I would prefer to look at ThePuppetmaster

alongside Flowers of Shanghai

(1998), and call them Hous Two Dreams ofLight and Shadows. If there are indeedlucid and inebriated dreams, The Puppetmas-

ter

will likely fall into the first category and

Flowers of Shanghai

the latter.There are times when we are asleep and

dreaming, yet lucidly conscious that this isa dream. It is as if we have become twopersons: at once a character in the dreamand a fully conscious audience. As scientistslike Ivor Grattan-Guinness outlined in hisworks on psychical research, the lucid


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WONG Ain-Ling

dream is a particular dream. Here a personmay be truly asleep and dreaming, and yetbe conscious that it is a dream. He may tellhimself, This is a dream, and I can doanything I want. I can fly. Usually when thethings that happen in the dream are excep-

tional (like the dreamer finding himselfcapable of speaking foreign languages or onthe moon), he will achieve such conscious-ness. Generally the dreamer does notquestion what happens in the dream. But ifa person sees his dream analytically, thedream may become lucid.

1

Such is the scientific language of thewest. In China, comparable descriptionscould be found in Su Shis Dongpos LiteraryCollection

: I was in Hangzhou and dreamedI was on the West Lake. I was dreaming and

I knew it was a dream (Su 2003: 46). AnotherSong dynasty poet, Lu You, wrote: Enjoyinga jovial time with the neighbour from thewest / I know it is all a dream / The winebottles are full and the bookcases stacked /When can I really share them with you?From this perspective, The Puppetmaster

is alucid dream. The person in the dream is theaging puppet master Li Tianlu, and Hou thefilmmaker is the passer-by who saunters intothe dream and puts it down on record.

The film opens with a family banquet tocelebrate Lis first birthday. Friends andrelatives have gathered to give blessing tothe baby, and grandfather Li Huo is busygreeting the guests. The camera is statio-nery; and the tone is somber yet human,rather like the shoujiu

(literally, abide bytraditions) fabric background on the stage ofa traditional opera. Then Lis voice, remi-niscing, comes in to accompany the merri-ment. It is a voice with a history and manyexperiences, but at the same time lively and

free of sentimentality, like it is telling some-body elses life story. Remembrance ofthings past is turning an individuals experi-ence into a legend of his times. What followsis a long shot of Lis home by the DanshuiRiver, where a congregation of villagershave gathered to watch a puppet show,performing Three Celestial Beings BestowingBirthday Wishes

on a tiny stage. The puppetswear elaborate costumes and are very well-

mannered. Yet it is the hands of the puppetmaster that are maneuvering them. Perhapslikewise our destinies are controlled bynatures invisible hands. At this point, thefilms Chinese title Xi Meng Rensheng

(literally, Life as Drama and Dream)

appears on a pitch black background in bigred characters.

Li later on names his puppet theatertroupe yiwanren

, meaning life-like. Ofcourse puppets are life-like; for they play onstage the dramas of life. On stage, the charac-ters of the opera feel their way around in aconstructed darkness, while off stage Li Huo,Meng Dong, A Dong and the others cut offtheir braids. Its like destiny is playing a trickon history, leading it through the wrongdoor and into an epoch where it has no busi-

ness entering. Under the enormous banyantree, a small puppet play is being acted out.We hear Li reciting the puppet shows mono-logue: A day away from home bestows ahundred days sorrow. The lonely wildgoose finds shelter in the forest. The sceneryis beautiful, but his heart longs for his homevillage. The teenager Li rebels against hisstepmothers abuses and runs away to jointhe Mountain View puppet troupe. Lisreminiscence is echoed in the poor boys

longing. On stage the maid cries over thebaby that has been placed under her charge,and backstage, A Gui and Sweet Potato playout a real life drama. The green valley, witha motherly embrace, cradles a procession ofvillagers clad in white on a swaying bridge.It is bringing the remains of mountain-tribesoldiers back to their birthplace. The make-shift puppet stage in the school playgroundputs on a propaganda show for the Japanesearmy. The camera cuts from a close shot to along shot. We hear shouts of bansai

reverber-

ating in the mountains.Traditional opera theatre has its own

rules about entrances and exits for theperformers to register their presence. Reallife is just as orderly, or messy. Someonefinishes a number and exits, and another oneenters. Hou has a predilection for the statio-nery camera. The teenager Li has stolen aChinese characters copy book and hismother is chasing him with a cane on the


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second floor. A door takes up almost half thescreen on the left. We see the mother enteringthe picture and disappearing behind thedoor. Later on the mother dies and the step-mother enters. She travels on the same pathalong the river to the Li household, and

climbs up the stairs to the same room. Thecomings and goings in life are played out inthe same spaces, sometimes visible andsometimes not. When grandfather Li Huodies, he falls down from the staircase andends up somewhere off screen. Hous treat-ment is in step with popular Chinese beliefsabout death: when one dies, he first goes tothe underworld. On the same staircase, wesee the adolescent Li, escaping his step-mothers wrath, sitting atop it, with portraitsof family ancestors hanging on the wall.

From this vantage point, he looks noncha-lantly at his father eating his supper, apicture of youthful arrogance and rebellion.Under the crystalline eye and serene gaze ofHous camera, mortals enter and exit, ormove up and down, much like the players onan opera stage. Perhaps such is the meaningof life as drama and dream.

Lis commentary and his screen appear-ance may lend the film an impression of anoral historical documentary, yet it is his

training as a folk artist and his personalitythat provide the film with a fictional story-telling quality. When we see him in hisshades sitting on the rock outside WangLais home relaying the story of his grand-mother, or sitting in the auditorium of theYue Theater telling the camera how he methis lover Lizhu, we are invariably remindedof the opera actors who, suddenly, in mid-sentence, turn to the audience and deliver aclever remark, before returning to theirperformance. It is also like a dreamer

distancing himself from his dream, andwatching himself playing out lifes eternaldramas. Truly exceptional though, is Lismanner in relaying his story and the historyof his times, which is both unadorned andnatural, and without sorrow or regret. Wecan almost feel the river of life passingunder our feet. The water seems so cool andrefreshing that it makes us want to scoop upa handful and bring it to our lips. Life is like

a dream, and dreams are life-like. And isntall drama a dream? The Puppetmaster

islikely the film that is spiritually closest totraditional opera in Chinese cinema.

The Puppetmaster

plays down the storysdramatic elements, the only notable excep-

tion being the sequence where Li meetsLizhu for the first time, which exudes thesensuality of a mildly erotic dream. Themeeting takes place inside a seductivelyilluminated room in the brothel RongGarden. For both Li and Sweet Potato, this istheir first visit to the establishment. Thethree of them sit around a table, with Li inthe middle, Sweet Potato to his right, andLizhu to his left, her red qipao

subtly evok-ing the hidden desire quivering in the air.

Lizhu: Care for a smoke?Sweet Potato: Good idea!(Lizhu strikes a match and puts thecigarette to Lis lips.)Sweet Potato: Not bad. Hes smiling.

He likes it.(The match flickers out and Lizhustrikes another one.)Sweet Potato: How pretty. You look

pretty striking a match.You sure know whatmy big brother likes.

(Lizhu moves over to Li, takes the

cigarette from his lips with her ownlips.)The camera closes in.Sweet Potato: Wow, how risqu! You

havent touched lipsyet.

(Li leans over to Lizhu and bites thecigarettes end. Lizhu lights up thesmoke.)Sweet Potato: No, it didnt light, it

didnt!Li: It didnt light. Do it

again.

Sweet Potato: Thats right. He said doit again.

(Li puts the cigarette in his mouth.Lizhu leans over to light it; Li sucks onthe cigarette.)

Sweet Potato: I didnt say that. Youwanted to do it yourself.Closer! Closer!

(The cigarette is lit. Li draws on it)(Hou et al

. 1993: 121123)


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WONG Ain-Ling

Desire ripples across the room underthe pale yellow light. Sweet Potatosdouble-edged quip has an aphrodisiaceffect, while decadent Japanese pop songsdrift in from the outside. We can imaginehow Li and Lizhus bodies go limp without

actually touching each other. Later on, inanother scene in the same setting, we see Liand Lizhu looking at Lizhus portraitstaken in a photography studio. When Libegins to tear up the pictures that hedislikes, Lizhu gets upset and takes aphotograph from him. Li grabs it back fromher and studies it. This ones not bad, hesays, and kisses the photograph. A studiedand exceptionally subtle portrait of twoexperienced persons falling for each other,Hou has the following to say about the

taboos in his cinema:

I think everybody has secrets. Sex andthe Chinese would be great themesbut also difficult to handle. From anearly age, Chinese people are trainedto live up to other peoples expecta-tions, and this internal focus eventu-ally forms their personality. Themost touching thing about sex isdesire, and not sex itself. Sex is only aform. If Im going to do sex in myfilms, I want to capture desire.

(Burdeau 2000: 114)

Later on I saw Flowers of Shanghai

andwas most pleasantly surprised: Hou has sethis mind on making an erotic dream. Theeroticism is of course different from Fell-inis, where he falls gleefully head-on into aforest of boisterous female bodies. For Hou,it is, rather, wandering into the FlowerHouses Quarters in Shanghais Britishconcession in the late Qing dynasty, as ifcaught in a trance. The Rong Garden in The

Puppetmaster

is in fact a poor mans versionof the Flower Houses Quarters. Li Tian-lureminisces in Life as Drama and Dream the

Memoirs of Li Tian Lu

: In those days goingfor a smoke cost only one yuan. You get sixsmokes, two or three pieces of candy and apot of tea, and you leave after you finishedyour smoke and tea. One got to stay forabout an hour (Zeng 1991: 91). Like patron-izing a tea party in a Shanghai flower house

a century ago, the pleasure is in theflirtation. For recidivist patrons, there is theadded pleasure of a family atmosphere. Theflower house is home to mortal desires andall of lifes untidy little businesses. When theflirting is over, one goes back to the basics:

food.Eileen Chang (Zhang Ailing), a writer

who finds the secular alluring, is naturallydrawn to everyday life portrayed in HanZiyuns original novel. And Hou, whoalways has a thing for the family, likelychose to adapt The Stories of Flowers of Shang-hai

(

Hai Shang Hua Liezhuan

, 1982) for itsfamilial milieu. There are numerousdinners in the film: some are social occa-sions, and others family affairs. Not faraway from the small round dinner table, a

bed always stands waiting. The Chinesepeoples favorite Confucius saying, Thedesire for food and sex is human nature,finds the most everyday expression in Houswork. Looking back at A City of Sadness

wesee its big family blended with the world ofprostitution. Lin A-lus family runs theLittle Shanghai Restaurant, once a brothelunder Japanese occupation. The film beginswith the opening of the restaurant under adull yellow light and behind stained glass,

Lins household and the working girls arerunning around, busy and bustling like afamily. Familial relationships and the sextrade are all housed under one roof. In theend, destiny rules and mere mortals are onlyhistorys playthings. Lins family is ruined.His sons die or go mad. Still, even the great-est sorrow is only a fraction of reality. Theold man watches Ah Xue bring him rice anddishes on a tray. He doesnt say a word andcommences eating.

The Stories of Flowers of Shanghai

is,

like Marcel Prousts la recherche du tempsperdu

, a novel that defies adaptation. HuShi, a renowned scholar of the MayFourth generation, argues that while Flow-ers of Shanghai

owes its origin to the eigh-teenth century classic The Scholars

(

RulinWaishi

), it is a better novel. In his Prefaceto Flowers of Shanghai in Eileen Changstranslation of Flowers of Shanghai

, hewrote:


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Most likely the author already had anoverall picture of the novels structurebefore he started weaving the separatestories into an intricate pattern. Hencehis masterly and composed control ofhis materials: an anecdote here andthere, sometimes hiding and sometimes

revealing All those disparate storiesof client A and prostitute B, client C andprostitute D, and so on and so forth,how does one construct them into anorganic whole? The author resorted tothe methods of insertion and evasion.That the novel is entitled The Stories ofFlowers of Shanghai

is also telling, mean-ing the novel is a composite of stories.It also means that the author had nointentions of imitating The Scholars

,which is to finish one story before start-ing another. The insertion and evasionmethod allows him to start a new wavebefore the previous one subsides, andto urge the readers to turn to the nextpage, yet the next page has turned toother businesses. (Chang 1989: 11)

The novels major plotline falls on thebrother-and-sister team Zhao Pozhai andZhao Erbao, cushioned by the stories ofMaster Wang Liansheng with the courtesansShen Xiaohong/Crimson and ZhangHuizhen/Jasmin, Masters Luo Zifu andQian Zigang with Huang Cuifeng/Emerald,Young Master Tao Yupu with the LiShufang/Crystal sisters, Young Master ZhuSuren with Zhou Shuangyu/Pearl, andother major and minor courtesans girls, andstringed together by the characters MastersHong Shanqing and Qi Xuesou. The result isan orderly structure in apparent chaos, likea panoramic view.

Hou and Chu Tien-wens adaptation,however, streamlines the original novels

meticulous details and complicated struc-ture, restricting the settings to severalspecific spaces: Pearls home in GongyangEnclave, Crimsons home in West HuifangEnclave, Jasmins home in EastHexing Enclave, and Emeralds home inShangren Enclave, and bringing us into atotally confined space of desire. The novelsauthor, Han Ziyun, would occasionally takehis readers on a stroll through Shanghais

British concession area, go shopping in thewesternized department stores, or visit theBund or Ming Garden on a horse-drawncoach. But Hou puts us under house arrestinside the typical Shanghai neighborhood offlower houses, and most of the time he even

keeps out the sun. Within that confined,almost suffocating space where smokemixes with desire, liquor, good food andromance are served on the same platter inthe undulating light of an oil lamp. MasterTu tells exaggerated tales of his brotherYupos love affair with Crystal, whileMaster Zhu Airen and his favorite courtesanflirt in front of everyone. The several nego-tiation scenes, however, are conducted indaylight. After Master Wang wreaks havocat Crimsons home, Master Hong goes with

him to visit Crimson again. Sunlight seepsin through the row of small windows in thesitting room, unassuming, even a littlefrightened, rather like Crimson who knowsshe is in the wrong. Also, when Jade fails topush Young Master Zhu to commit suicidewith her, Zhu finds Master Hong to negoti-ate with Pearl, and sunlight pours into thehall of Jades residence. The subsequentsequence sees the trio in Pearls room,where Zhu makes arrangement to release

Jade from prostitution and prepare for herdowry; and the sun shines even more bril-liantly, as if reflecting Jades pride andglory.

The beginning chapter of the novelbegins with the author character Hua YeLian Nong (which reminds one of the open-ing chapter of The Dream of the Red Chamber

):

Hua Ye Lian Nong is master of the Landof Sweet Dreams. A true dream maker,he lives in dreams but does not believethey are dreams. When finally heconcocts this book of dreams and wakesup from it the book grows out ofHuas dream. There is no telling how hearrives in this dream, only that he feelshis body swaying and uncertain, androlls into it like fog chased away byclouds. He looks up and finds himselfelsewhere. He looks hither and thitherand sees not a path, but a boundless andinfinite sea of flowers. (Chang 1989: 27)


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WONG Ain-Ling

In the novel, Hua thinks he has woken froma dream and, for no apparent reason,stumbles into Lujia Stone Bridge, an east-meets-west neighborhood in Shanghai.There he meets Zhao Pozhai, who has justarrived in the city from the countryside. The

novel ends with the nightmare of Zhaosyounger sister Erbao, who has become aprostitute. Eileen Chang finds the ending soextraordinary that she describes it ascoming to an abrupt halt.

Hous filmic adaptation brings theaudience, right from the very beginning,into a lush dreamscape. A dot of yellowlight slowly fans out from the center of ablack screen, and an oil lamp illuminatestwo pairs of hands engaged in a drinkinggame, and their respective owners. The

camera slowly reveals the guests and theircourtesans. The party is lively, with onlyMaster Wang (played by Tony Leung Chiu-wai) looking unhappy. Then we hear TaoYunpu relaying the luscious affair betweenhis younger brother Yupu and the teenagecourtesan Crystal, which stands in starkcontrast to Wangs present state as a forlornlover. This sequence finds echo in an endsequence when Crimson has fallen out offavor, while the young actor Xiao Liuer,

previously a hanger-on, has taken overWangs position. We see the upstart eatinghis supper and smoking in the brothel, withCrimson dismal and weary by his side. SoWang and Crimson, a worldly couple, endup lonely and miserable. Their quest forlove and romance has all been in vain. Thefamous plan-sequences are weaved togetherby fade-ins and fade-outs, or more appro-priately, black-ins and black-outs, its rhyth-mic pattern reminding one of the traditional

kunqu

music: supple, relentless and drowsy,

like a dream that no one wants to wake upfrom.

In this visually seductive and busy film,Hous camera discards its overview angle, sotreasured in his earlier works. Instead, itswims through the confined space ofShanghais elegant brothels, at times like theimpassive gaze of an old maid-servant busypreparing tea and pastries, yet watching themerry-go-round and taking in every detail

around her. But, more often, the gaze is thatof a dreamer. Hou has purposely left out thecolonial colors of Shanghai in the late Qingdynasty. His indulgence is an imaginedmilieu of traditional Chinese culture. LikeEsquire Yihong in Dreams of the Red Chamber

,

Wang is doomed to perversely indulgehimself in the realm of senses. Perhaps Flow-ers of Shanghai

is Hous dream of un tempsperdu

.

Notes

1. For further readings, please consult Grattan-Guiness (1982).

References

Assayas, Olivier et al

. (2000)

Hou Hsiao-Hsien

(Chinese version), Taipei: Chinese Taipei FilmArchive.

Burdeau, Emmanuel (2000) Interview with HouHsiao-Hsien,

Hou Hsiao-Hsien,

Taipei: ChineseTaipei Film Archive.

Chang, Eileen (trans.) (1989) Han Ziyuns Flowers ofShanghai

(

Hai shang hua

), Taipei: CrownPublishing.

Grattan-Guinness, Ivor (ed.) (1982)

A PsychicalResearch: A Guide to its History, Principles,and Practices,

Wellingborough, UK: AquarianPress.

Hou, Hsiao-Hsien, Wu, Nian-jen and Zhu, Tian-wen(1993)

The Puppet Master the Shooting Script

(

Hou Hsiao-Hsien dianying fenjing juben xi mengren sheng

), Taipei: Maitian Publishing Co.Su, Shi (2003)

Dongpos Literary Collection

(

Dongpo zhilin

), Xian: Sanqin Publishing.Zeng, Yuwen (1991)

The Puppet Master The Memoirsof Li Tianlu

(

Xi meng ren sheng Li Tianlu huiyilu

), Taipei: Yuanliu Publishing Co.

Authors biography

Wong Ain-ling is now Research Officer atthe Hong Kong Film Archive, and was Head ofFilm Programming at Hong Kong Arts Centre from1987 to 1990 and Programmer of Asian Cinema atHong Kong International Film Festival from 1990 to1996. Publications: Xi Yuan

( 2000), Fei Mu,Poet Director (

, ed., 1998), The CathayStory

(ed., 2002), The Shaw Screen A PreliminaryStudy

(ed., 2003), The Hong Kong Guangdong FilmConnection

(ed., 2005), The Glorious Modernity ofKong Ngee

(ed., 2006), Li Han-hsiang, Storyteller

(ed.,2007).


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Contact address:

Mailing address: 175 Shalan Villas,Shuen Wan, Tai Po, New Territories, Hong Kong.

Translators biography

Jacob Wong, now Curator of Hong Kong Interna-tional Film Festival since 1997. Also Director of

Hong Kong Asian Film Financing Forum (HAF)since 2007.

Contact address:

Hong Kong InternationalFilm Festival Society, 7/F United Chinese BankBuilding, 31-37 Des Voeux Rd., Central, HongKong.

7 hou hsiao-hsien’s two dreams of light and shadows

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