This paper explores the mise-en-scene of performance in Hou Hsiao-Hsien's 16 films, from The Sandwich Man (1983) to The Assassin (2015). The research consists of four parts: First, it describes the development of the mise-en-scene of performance in Hou's films. Second, it establishes Hou’s directorial and creative thinking with the mise-en-scene of performance at the core. Third, through changes in the performance style of actress Shu Qi in her collaboration with Hou, the paper discusses the ways that Hou uses his performance mise-en-scene techniques to direct actors to build the depth of performance. Fourth, it analyzes The Assassin to examine Hou’s late style. The performance text analysis shows the research thinking context, the system of performance analysis, and the analysis results. The focuses of each chapter are as follows.
Chapter 1 is the introduction. Chapter 2 discusses the background of how Hou formed the ideas for his unique performance mise-en-scene, his development process, and his gradual shift in focus. This chapter closely studies the performance text and script text through comparative analysis and dialectics. Referencing the writings of Andre Bazin on the performance in Neorealism, the chapter sheds light on Hou’s approach to directing performance through improvising as well as his changing and expanding settings in the script. Shifting from pure realism to the immediate moment of an individual's decision, Hou’s later work slowly moves away from the deep focus shot in the Bazinian realism.
Chapter 3 summarizes and reconstructs Hou’s creative approach to the mise-en-scene of performance as the core. Through the background context of Hou’s shooting and thinking, the chapter constructs a unique director’s theory of Hou. Studying Hou’s direction of the actors from the perspective of renowned psychotherapist Virginia Satir’s Iceberg Theory, the chapter elaborates on Hou’s unique filmmaking theory and analyzes the essence of his creative viewpoint: opposing the plot-centered dramatics, the flexibility of the script, and the absolute trust in actors, which he bases on to develop his work with non-professional actors and the freedom and limitations of improvisation. The chapter analyzes his approach to closing the gap between the “character” and the “actor” in various creative aspects.
Based on the empirical reasoning method, the fourth chapter explores the collaboration between famous actress Shu Qi and Hou and traces her proactive transformation from her stardom image to a film performer and eventually into an auteur actress. It verifies the inspiration and profound influence of Hou’s directorial thinking on actors’ performances with references to Eugenio Barba’s idea of Theatre Anthropology and Richard Dyer’s star theory.
The fifth chapter explores Hou's late style through an in-depth analysis of The Assassin to compare the performance text and the script text. The chapter borrows the perspective of Postdramatic theatre and Patrice Pavis’ performance analysis to discuss the “layers of time” in the performance text in the later work of Hou. In this way, the performance text reframes the script text, building up the characters' self-owned freedom of choice beyond causality. The chapter also reflects on the predicament of film criticism focusing on the text as a single source. The sixth chapter concludes and summarizes Hou’s achievement in film aesthetics through his spontaneous and organic mise-en-scene of performance.