The Boys from Fengkuei

THE BOYS FROM FENGKUEI was Hou Hsiao-hsien’s fourth film as director, but in many ways it can be viewed as his first mature work—the one in which he moved away from commercial comedies toward a more rigorous, naturalistic mode of storytelling. Four aimless friends from the small village of Fengkuei spend their days drinking, fighting, gambling and goofing off. When three of them head to the port city of Kaohsiung in search of urban adventure, they find themselves reckoning with the realities of work, love, and death in a world they’re not prepared to face.