hou has written 21 films in total, 8 of which he also directed ("the assassin", "flight of the red balloon", "three times", "café lumière", "a time to live, a time to die", "a summer at grandpa's", "cute girl", and "the green, green grass of home"). most notably, hou was one of the co-writers, along with chu t’ien-wen and edward yang on yang's film "taipei story" (1985), which hou also starred in as the main character and protagonist, lung.