provincial versus urban life

His films consistently explore the struggles of working-class communities in economically neglected regions, contrasting rural and urban poverty with unflinching social realism.

He examines the tension between rural traditions and urban modernity, portraying how provincial families navigate displacement and cultural change in contemporary Japan.

His films meditate on rural alienation and urban modernization in Taiwan, capturing the melancholy of characters caught between disappearing provincial worlds and impersonal cities.