Hou Hsiao-Hsien´s masterpiece from the 1990s called Hsimeng Rensheng (The Puppetmaster, 1993) centers around the life and career of Li Tienlu, a Taiwanese puppeteer, and combines his personal life with the history of Taiwan from 1909 until the end of Japanese domination of the island in 1945, very similar to his earlier film of the trilogy Bei quing cheng shi (A City of Sadness, 1989) which showed Taiwan´s 1940s history while focussing on the destiny of a family. Hou Hsiao-Hsien manages to masterfully demonstrate the individual human being as well as the collective of history, his ruminant shots and beautiful camera angles often let The Puppetmaster appear like a canvas, and the director himself acknowledged his influences by classical Chinese paintings. The film is a quiet meditation seldomly found in modern cinema, and a rare aestetic delight.