Daughter of the Nile

Director: Hou Hsiao Hsien

1987 / 91min / DCP

A pivotal but little-screened film in Hou’s celebrated filmography, Daughter of the Nile acts as a sort of bridge between his breakthrough Coming of Age Trilogy and the trilogy of period-set films he made in collaboration with writer Wu Nien-jen. In this film, for the first time, Hou places contemporary Taipei center stage, telling the story of a young woman (pop star Lin Yang) trying to prevent her family from falling apart in a fast-changing city that offers its residents no sense of permanence or security. While Hou would explore Taipei’s complicated history in his films with Wu, in Daughter of the Nile he acutely diagnosed its present state.