Growing Up, tries to transcend the normal caliber of Chinese films. The screenplay (by Ho Hsiao-hsien, Chu Tien-wen, Ding Ya-ming, and Hsu Su-chien) presents revealing images of a traditional, middle-class Taiwan family who are not the "deadly" stereotypes commonly shown on Taiwan TV and in the movies, but living, multi-dimensional characters. Mr. Bi (portrayed by actor Tsui Fu-sheng) does not drink, cheat on his wife, or beat his stepson. He works hard at his job and, when at home in the Tamsui section of Taipei, teaches Little Bi the art of Chinese calligraphy. He never raises his voice to his wife whom, because of their age difference, he treats almost like a daughter.
Actress Chang Chun-fang plays Little Bi's mother. She is not the stereotypical bossy wife or nagging mother, but a slim, silent woman who has dedicated her whole life to her family (two more sons after marrying Mr. Bi). Her highest hopes, however, rest with Little Bi. We see this in the way she prepares his lunchbox, sews his clothes, and pleads with his teachers for another chance when he gets into trouble. Chang's performance is a major reason why Growing Up impresses as a touching and even powerful film.
Because the story traces Little Bi's life to his entrance into the ROC Air Force Academy, four actors (Yi Sheng-tzu, Yen Cheng-kwo, Neo Cheng-tse, and Chang Chuan-wen) are used to portray its different stages, with somewhat uneven results. Child actor Yi Sheng-tzu, who portrays the youngest Little Bi, lacking on-camera experience, keeps looking at the director (or perhaps his assistant) who is giving cues from one side of the camera. This very distracting problem disappears when the aging role is taken over by the next actor.
Other problems arise in an evident lack of attention to detail. For instance, some scenes take place in a classroom filled with students. There are always one or two of these "extras" who are laughing at the wrong time, too automatically, or who are staring at the wrong place.
In one scene, an older Little Bi and his middle school buddies engage in a fist fight with members of a rival school group. A knife, however, is drawn, and one of Little Bi's allies is seriously injured, an event eventually leading to a film climax—a very physical confrontation between a rebellious Little Bi and his worried parents.
In a manner of speaking, Growing Up is a period piece. Most of the story takes place during the 1960s, during Little Bi's middle school era. Details of that era are important to those of us who grew up during that same period. We know that Taiwan youths of that time did not wear (as portrayed in this film) low-cut white sports shoes, but black "sneakers" that covered the ankles. The Bi family also uses a style of vacuum bottle which is clearly "ahead of its time."
All such talk about defects in the acting, the details, and period factors is a mere picking at very small bones.
Growing Up is strong in story and rich in images. Little Bi has been giving off telltale behavioral "vibes" since early childhood. We first see him shooting rubber bands at goldfish and, later, maliciously scissoring the hair off a stray puppy dog. From the time he enters school, he is bright but naughty, and has begun to mix with "bad company." At first it is only harmless pranks on other students; then they steal comic books and rent them out to classmates. Without his father's intercession, Little Bi, caught minding his "bookstand," would have been sent to juvenile court. The day soon arrives when his pranks, no longer funny, earn him an expulsion notice. Again his parents save his neck.
But the incidents continue until Little Bi's doting mother realizes that pampering, scolding, or spanking can no longer affect the current direction of her son's life. She sees her husband off to work and her children off to school, locks herself in the kitchen, and turns on the gas.
Little Bi comes home to discover his dead mother being carried away in an ambulance, and is finally moved—to tears. Soon afterwards occurs the turning in Little Bi's life. This important scene has no words and is very brief. There is a slow zoom-in shot of Little Bi washing his younger brother's feet in the bathroom. The audience recognizes that the mother has done the same thing every night, just before letting her sons go to bed. In a few seconds of film, we see that Little Bi has, as the film's title indicates, grown up.
Though this would seem an appropriate ending for Growing Up, the film makers have chosen to wrap things up with an epilogue of sorts. They show Little Bi at a class reunion four years later. He has decided to join the ROC Air Force instead of going on to college as his mother had wished. He needs now to break away from all traces of his life in Tamsui. The fates of his classmates are shown or discussed briefly so that the film can end quickly...and perhaps a little too neatly.
Growing Up is another representative of various recent landmark attempts within the Chinese movie industry to break out of the traditional mode and raise the artistic level of its products. This film deserves praise for its natural and intimate look at a traditional Taiwan family; it is full of wonderful vignettes of youth in Taiwan—the marble games played, the pranks pulled, and the foreign language exams endured are reflective of local culture and universal at the same time.
Director Cheng Kwen-hou has gotten mostly spirited, humorous and touching performances out of the four actors playing Little Bi. Most effective, perhaps, are the powerful performances by Tsui and Chang in the roles of the parents. They go about their duties with an unmelodramatic naturalness and a visible, if unspoken love—an acting style that is a refreshing and innovative change for Chinese films.
Putting aside its various glitches, Growing Up offers a worthwhile film experience, a touching story...and hopefully serves as an exemplary vanguard for better Chinese films to come.