hou was voted "director of the decade" for the 1990s in a poll of american and international critics by "the village voice" and "film comment". in a 1998 new york film festival worldwide critics' poll, hou was named "one of the three directors most crucial to the future of cinema." "a city of sadness" ranked 117th in the british film institute's 2012 "sight & sound" critics' poll of the greatest films ever made.