Film critic J. Hoberman wrote an article to introduce a restoration of Hou Hsiao-Hsien’ Millennium Mambo at the New York Times’s film column REWIND on December 23.
“A 4K restoration of Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s thrumming, visually bold movie about a self-destructive club girl retains its capital-L look. “
“Hou Hsiao-hsien’s “Millennium Mambo” — the tale of a teenage Taipei club girl — is not only the most pop movie the great Taiwanese filmmaker has ever made but, intermittently, among the most astonishingly beautiful.”
“Millennium Mambo premiered at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival, where it was given a mixed reception and an award for sound design. Hou’s first feature since his exquisite period piece “Flowers of Shanghai,” the movie marked his entry into contemporary territory occupied by two of his younger admirers, the filmmakers Olivier Assayas and Wong Kar-wai.”
“Some took Millennium Mambo as Hou’s misguided attempt to connect with a younger generation, perhaps forgetting that he had begun his career as a commercial filmmaker and made more than a few “youth films” — notably the not dissimilar and initially underappreciated Daughter of the Nile.”
Millennium Mambo premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2001. Metrograph Pictures is re-releasing the 2001 film with a new 4K edition in theaters and at home. Millennium Mambo is a part of Taipei Stories program opened Dec. 23 at Metrograph, Manhattan.
New York Times digital version:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/22/movies/millennium-mambo-hou-hsiao-hsien.html