Riding the momentum from a trio of internationally acclaimed gems (A City of Sadness, The Puppetmaster, and Good Men, Good Women), Hou Hsiao-hsien cemented his status as one of cinema’s inimitable visionaries with 1996’s Goodbye South, Goodbye, a mesmerizing portrait of the ennui and corruption at the heart of modern Taiwan. Hou regular Jack Kao plays Gao, a low-level gangster approaching middle age with deep regrets for his misspent life. Gao arrives in Pingxi to run a gambling house with a friend, even as he dreams of someday investing in a Shanghai nightclub. But after getting enlisted in a series of petty grifts, Gao finds even these modest hopes slipping away as his allegiances become torn between his alienated girlfriend, Ying (Hsu Gui-ying), and his underlings Flatty (Lim Giong) and Pretzel (Annie Shizuka Inoh), a reckless pair whose ineptitude may prove his downfall. Employing his patented roving long takes and off-kilter compositions to capture brilliantly naturalistic performances, Hou makes a defining statement on the malaise, amorality, and greed filling the void of a Taiwanese society that has been cut off from any sense of purpose or tradition.