A Summer at Grandpa's

A Summer at Grandpa's (Chinese: 冬冬的假期; pinyin: Dōng dōng de jiàqī) is a 1984 Taiwanese coming-of-age family drama directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien and co-written with Hou by Chu Tien-wen. The film tells the semi-autobiographical exploits of a young brother and sister who spend a pivotal summer in the country with their grandparents while their mother is in critical care in the hospital.

A Summer at Grandpa's
Directed byHou Hsiao-hsien
Written byChu T’ien-wen
Hou Hsiao-hsien
Music byEdward Yang
CinematographyChen Kunhou
Release date
1984
Running time
94 minutes
CountryTaiwan
LanguageMandarin/Hakka Chinese

The film was Hou’s sixth overall, and first after his international breakthrough The Boys from Fengkuei (1983).

A Summer at Grandpa’s was well received by critics in Taiwan and on the American and European festival circuits, winning the Jury Prize at the Locarno Film Festival in 1985 and the Golden Montgolfier at the 1985 Nantes Three Continents Film Festival. Nowadays, it is considered the first film in a loose thematic trilogy from Hou Hsiao-hsien, all based on true life experiences, with the other inclusions being The Time to Live and the Time to Die (1985) and Dust in the Wind (1986).

Plot

A young boy, Dong-Dong and his sister spend a summer vacation at their grandparents' house in the country while their mother recuperates from an illness; they while away the hours climbing trees, swimming in a stream, searching for missing cattle, and coming uneasily to grips with the enigmatic and sometimes threatening realities of adult life.

Reception

The Chicago Reader gave the film a positive review[1], calling the film a "lyrical childhood remembrance" and praising the "fine, unsentimental attention to childhood incident." The film currently holds an 89% audience score[2] on Rotten Tomatoes, with the website citing four "fresh" reviews from film critics.

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References
  1. Graham, Pat. "A Summer at Grandpa's". Chicago Reader. Retrieved 2020-06-13.
  2. Dongdong de jiaqi (A Summer at Grandpa's) (1984), retrieved 2020-06-13


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