Though his international rep came a bit later, Taiwanese filmmaker Hsiao-Hsien Hou may have been at his best in the 1980s, as in this filled-to-the-brim semi-autobiographical family drama.* Something more than a coming-of-age story, it focuses on the bumpy path of an adopted son in a large family, the film split between his playful youth (at about 10) and a more troubled adolescence (near 20), dramatically punctuated with the loss of his health-plagued father in the first half and his mother & grandmother in the second. Hsiao-Hsien Hou paces the informal patterns of life beautifully, without pointing things out for us, not even detailing the many children in the family. Who’s that? You may exclaim at times. The idea is too give in to the flow of life in this lower-class household as fortunes ebb and flow around them. By the end, you’ll find you're completely absorbed in incidents ranging from a small turf war between rival street gangs to a mother’s declining health, or something as simple as a solitary stand-up bath. A unique, moving, and unexpectedly welcoming family journey.
DOUBLE-BILL: With a more traditional narrative structure (young couple moves to the city and find themselves lost), DUST IN THE WIND/’86 may be a better Hsiao-Hsien Hou starting point even though it’s something of a followup to this film. Before, A SUMMER AT GRANDPA’S/’84 (not seen here) is first of the trilogy.
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: *Just how autobiographical? In real life, Hsiao-Hsien Hou seems a little too young for the mostly ‘50s time frame. Closer to the age of the kid brother.
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