Hou's shots often display a spectacular geometricization of the mise- en-scene, implying a fascination for graphic play. For example, in the main house the wall of window panes divides the movie screen into a field of rectangles. (B 7:40-8:45) This view recurs throughout the film, often with people in both in front of and behind the windows. He often foregrounds the intersecting lines of the windows and doorways by placing the characters behind them. The action continues smoothly while the composition undergoes rather extreme stylization, a stylization which can be appreciated in and of itself. In other rooms of the same house, windows are decorated with stained glass diamond patterns. These diamonds often provide the backdrop for dinners and discussions, and shift from one pattern to another depending on the room (A 6:30-7:00, A 19:28- 20:43). Besides signaling location, they function on a level of graphic play from one scene to the next, signaling an appreciation of the frame as pure composition that Hou shares with Ozu.
This stylized mise-en-scene may be found in Hou's earlier films as well. In these films, it's easily attributable to the Japanese architecture, which is naturally divided into squares and rectangles. However, by looking at his other films, it becomes clear that Hou is composing his shots with an unusual sophistication, and under quite different rules. In Summer at Grandpa's, Hou's composition constantly emphasizes the geometry of the architecture. In the frame blow-up above, for example, human characters compete with squares, rectangles and hexagons for attention. The photograph below is a frame from the wedding sequence in Dust in the Wind, which distributes symmetrical couples in a mass wedding around a neon double happiness. Finally, it's worth noting that the geometricization of space in Daughter of the Nile, one of the most formally beautiful of all Chinese films, is more extreme than City of Sadness; there's no teleology at work in Hou's oeuvre, only a general orientation towards stylization.
