This is an okay-ish early film from director Hou Hsiao-Hsien, whose filmmaking career can be charted thus: early biographical works, middle period historical chronicles, and then late experimental and arthouse flavourings. This one is part of that first phase and in all honesty the first time we see any kind of imprint expected from an auteur: we’ve got themes that would reeemerge in later movies, like formative childhood experiences, the contrast in the cultural lifestyles of the city and the countryside, and a bit of a social message.
Cute Girl is to Hou as Boxcar Bertha is to Scorsese - a proverbial foot in the door. An inexpensive genre flick apparently just to prove he can stay on time. This one is him beginning to show what he’s capable of, even if it’s not mind blowing as a film.
The set up of this young teacher (the funny/handsome Hong Kong cinema veteran Benny Kee, who was also the lead in Cute Girl) arriving at a small school in the mountains is mostly just a staging ground for a lightly comic set of vignettes of ethical quandaries starring young children. These little anecdotal scenes with kids are endearing. It was pretty funny when one brings his stool to school in a juice carton. Apart from that, it’s not got a strong narrative through line. It reminds me slightly of those old episodic YA novels set in boarding schools. One of the threads does eventually evolve into a climax involving the protection of riverlife. Not exactly riveting stuff.
This is an okay-ish early film from director Hou Hsiao-Hsien, whose filmmaking career can be charted thus: early biographical works, middle period historical chronicles, and then late experimental and arthouse flavourings. This one is part of that first phase and in all honesty the first time we see any kind of imprint expected from an auteur: we’ve got themes that would reeemerge in later movies, like formative childhood experiences, the contrast in the cultural lifestyles of the city and the countryside, and a bit of a social message.
Cute Girl is to Hou as Boxcar Bertha is to Scorsese - a proverbial foot in the door. An inexpensive genre flick apparently just to prove he can stay on time. This one is him beginning to show what he’s capable of, even if it’s not mind blowing as a film.
The set up of this young teacher (the funny/handsome Hong Kong cinema veteran Benny Kee, who was also the lead in Cute Girl) arriving at a small school in the mountains is mostly just a staging ground for a lightly comic set of vignettes of ethical quandaries starring young children. These little anecdotal scenes with kids are endearing. It was pretty funny when one brings his stool to school in a juice carton. Apart from that, it’s not got a strong narrative through line. It reminds me slightly of those old episodic YA novels set in boarding schools. One of the threads does eventually evolve into a climax involving the protection of riverlife. Not exactly riveting stuff.
