I totally agree on Hou Hsiao-Hsien and Abbas Kiarostami.  Two infallible filmmakers still working hard today.  I'd also add Wong Kar-wai and Takeshi Kitano.  Wong Kar-wai is easily the best Hong Kong director of smart, arthouse films.  And Takeshi Kitano has made a lot of very dumb movies, but he got much better with Sonatine and his masterpiece Fireworks.