In this groundbreaking work, Davis and Yeh at once offer the reader something illuminating in theoretical engagement, erudite in historical delineation, and lucid in writing style. It is a must-read. -- Sheldon Lu, University of California, Davis, coeditor of Chinese-Language Film: Historiography, Poetics, Politics With a sumptuous fund of historical details and formal insights, this landmark study of Taiwan film directors articulates questions of cultural production in ways that resonate well beyond the Asia Pacific. A superb resource both for the general reader and for the specialist. -- Rey Chow, Brown University, author of Primitive Passions, Visuality, Sexuality, Ethnography, and Contemporary Chinese Cinema Taiwanese cinema, remarkably creative for twenty-five years, receivesits due in this stimulating book. Elegantly blending cultural historyand film analysis, Yeh and Davis shed new light on the extraordinaryachievements of Edward Yang, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Tsai Ming-liang, Ang Lee,and other renowned directors. Taiwan Film Directors is a sensitive andprobing introduction to one of the world's most exciting cinematictraditions. -- David Bordwell, University of Wisconsin-Madison, author ofFigures Traced in Light: On Cinematic Staging Taiwan is home to some of today's finest working filmmakers-and in the case of Hou Hsiao-hsien, one the finest ever. Darrell Davis and Emilie Yeh's thoughtful study of the Taiwan New Cinema could not be more welcome. -- J. Hoberman, film critic The Village Voice

Focusing on the 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. 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.