Low-level hoodlum Kao (Jack Kao, one of Hou’s most faithful collaborators) commutes between the mean streets of Taipei and the quiet towns of southern Taiwan, filling his days with gambling, cooking, and dubious get-rich-quick schemes. He dreams of striking it big with a nightclub in Shanghai, but his lofty aspirations are weighed down by bad luck and a hotheaded protégé (played by musician Lim Giong, who also oversaw the wonderfully eclectic soundtrack). This unusual take on the gangster movie—voted the best film of the ’90s by Cahiers du cinéma—has faint echoes of Scorsese, but Hou’s absurdist and melancholic vision is ultimately all his own.

35mm collection print courtesy of the UCLA Film & Television Archive