The Hou Hsiao-hsien Podcast no. 25: Contexts 15 -- Growing Up (Chen Kunhou, 1983)

https://notesonfilm1.com/2021/08/30/hou-hsiao-hsien-25-contexts-15-growing-up-chen-kunhou-1983/ We discuss this absorbing and extremely likeable film in the context of New Taiwanese Cinema. Chen Kunhou was then Hou's regular cinematographer. This feels , to an extent,  like a transition between the style of the earlier Hou films and the later ones. Hou Hsiao-hsien collaborated on the screenplay and we compare this to Hou's earlier films (and find it lacking). There's a sense that that this is a first try for ideas that were better developed in Boys from Fengkuei & Time to Live and a Time to Die. There are spoilers in the podcast. The film is a maternal melodrama, where the mother's point of view is sidelined in favour of the son's, the husband's, the society, a childhood schoolmate of the son. We find fault with the screenplay, the structure and the visual story-telling. What in Hou feel like ellipses that afford depth, here  come across as unbelievable plot holes or plot twists. We are nonetheless very charmed by it and highly recommend.