A Summer at Grandpa's (1984)
"Dong dong de jia qi" (original title)

Director:

Hsiao-hsien Hou

Writers:

T'ien-wen Chu (screenplay), T'ien-wen Chu (story),

Stars:

C. Chen Li, Hsiu-Ling Lin, Mei-Feng

3 wins.

Cast

Credited cast:
C. Chen Li
Hsiu-Ling Lin
Mei-Feng
Ching-kuo Yan	...	A kid
Edward Yang
Lai-Yin Yang

Storyline

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Plot Keywords:

children | grandparents | holidays | river | train | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

Taiwan

Language:

Hakka Mandarin Shanghainese

Release Date:

1984 (Taiwan)

Also Known As:

A Summer at Grandpa's

Filming Locations:

Taiwan

Company Credits

Production Co:

Central Motion Pictures Corporation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

93 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

This film is inspired by screenwriter Chu Tien-wen's childhood memories. It is the first installment of director Hou Hsiao-Hsien's "Coming-of-Age Trilogy" that features three prominent Taiwanese screenwriters' coming-of-age stories - the other two are "Time to Live and a Time to Die, A (1985)" (inspired by the coming-of-age story of Hou Hsiao-Hsien, who is a screenwriter-turned-director) and "Dust in the Wind (1986)" (inspired by the coming-of-age story of Wu Nien-Jen).

User Reviews

Quite a delightful little film

When their mother is forced to stay in the hospital for a prolonged period of time, Ting-Ting (a four year old girl) and Tung-Tung (an eleven year old boy) are taken by their uncle to spend the summer with their grandfather, a doctor in a small, rural town. There are some cliches in the film. The strict, imposing grandfather who at first doesn't seem to like the kids (I saw this just last week in Ford's Wee Willie Winkie) and the crazy lady who later saves one of the children's lives come quickly to mind. A scene where Ting-Ting gives her stuffed animal to a recovering patient of her grandfather's made me cringe a bit. But other than that, it's a rather wonderful movie. The two children in particular are fantastic. When Tung-Tung first meets up with local children, they have a battle between his remote control car and another boy's pet turtle (probably not the best scene to watch if you're a member of PETA, however). In another scene, the boys race their turtles. And there are more. The uncle, kind of the black sheep of the family, has a good subplot, as well. Edward Yang, the director of Yi Yi, has a small role as the children's father. It's too bad this of all of Hou's movies is unavailable. I only liked Flowers of Shanghai better. 8/10.