過去關於侯孝賢電影形式的研究以及近年來興起的詩學研究多著重在以攝影為中心的風格分析，過去對於聲音與剪接等其他重要的形式層面的忽略，因此對於David Bordwell所謂的「整體形式詩學」也未有比較具體的解釋。本文認為朱天文所謂侯孝賢電影的「醚味」提供一個描述侯孝賢電影整體形式詩學的概念，可適切說明侯孝賢如何在他的電影總一貫企圖同時傳達包含個人、社會／歷史／國家／都市、宏觀生命以及（後設）電影藝術等多層次的意義。本文特別針對《風櫃來的人》、《珈琲時光》的聲音與《童年往事》、《戀戀風塵》及《悲情城市》的剪接進行分析，說明侯孝賢電影的「醚味」如何也在攝影以外的層面運作。本文最後詳細分析侯孝賢《戲夢人生》透過「布袋戲」所傳達的多層次意義，作為侯孝賢電影詩學裡「醚味」發散的最佳範例。

The emergent studies of Hou-hsien's poetics have mainly been cinematography oriented, just as most of the earlier formalist approaches to his films. The aspects of sound and editing are unfortunately neglected and no satisfactory argument of what David Bordwell calls "the poetics of the overarching form" of Hou's films has been presented yet. This article contents that Zhu Tien-wen's notion of "subtle complexity" (Miwei) may be a good term to describe the governing principle of the overarching form of Hou's films: a consistent attempt to simultaneously provide multiple layers of meaning in his films, including the personal, the social/historical/national/urban, the existential and the (self-reflexively) cinematic. The exemplary use of sound in Boys from Fenguei and Cafe Lumiere as well as the editing of A Time to Live and A Time to Die, Dust of Wind, and City of Sadness is duscussed to demonstrate their significant functions in Hou's poetics. A careful examination of the many symbolic meanings of "puppet" in The Puppetmaster provides a closer look into the subtle complexity of Hou's poetics.