Hou’s third film is the last with any real link to the Taiwanese love-story genre, made as it is on the eve of the emergence of Taiwan’s New Wave. It is also the most complex and subtle of the three, earning Hou his first Golden Horse nomination (Taiwan’s equivalent of the Academy Awards). “The Green, Green Grass of Home is set wholly in a village, where the up-and-down courtship between two primary-school teachers is overshadowed by the crises in the lives of the townspeople. Blending an episodic romance with children’s family problems and the pollution of the local river, Green, Green Grass compares favorably with Ozu’s lyrical comedies of the 1930s.” (David Bordwell)