The Flight of the Red Balloon - Hou Hsiao Hsien

Flight of the Red Balloon is Hou Hsiao Hsien’s 2008 tribute to Albert Limorisse’s thirty four minute short The Red Balloon, the legendary film about the adventures of a little boy who was magically trailed by a willful red balloon through the old-fashioned streets of Paris. This too is about a wondrous red balloon that follows a little boy through his footprints in Paris, but unlike its inspirational film, this docile balloon shadows the lives of the grown-ups the same. The film shows the soft and shy preteen Simon

If you find yourself becoming all nerves while constantly tossing and turning, fidgety for the action moments to turn up in a film – shoot, scoot, and clear out - go far, far away from this film. Merci,  mes amis. (Thanking you ever so kindly). Now for those who remain - Assuming that you’re an unhurried kind of the human species, and can spend long days in your own little paradisaical place of dreams, without so much as a breeze to shake you, The Flight of the Red Balloon is yours to love!

Picture yourself weightless and fastened to a gas balloon that goes skyward in its sublime flow and leisurely will. You’re liberated but not without worry – there’s enough of a world down there to pull you down and keep you harried; same with the film. Flight of the Red Balloon is Hou Hsiao Hsien’s 2008 tribute to Albert Limorisse’s thirty four minute short The Red Balloon, the legendary film about the adventures of a little boy who was magically trailed by a willful red balloon through the old-fashioned streets of Paris. This too is about a wondrous red balloon that follows a little boy through his footprints in Paris, but unlike its inspirational film, this docile balloon shadows the lives of the grown-ups the same.

The film shows the soft and shy preteen Simon in the routine and quiet gradations of his life. His mother Suzanne, (Juliette Binoche) preoccupied with her work in running a puppet theater is single and beset by the real demands of her clamorous life. Her lover/husband (whom we nor see, nor hear) is far away in Montreal, and shows no hopes of returning. Life's anything but easy for this blonde, bold and beautiful woman . There's her  household with with the pesky tenants to manage, the puppets of her new production to voice for, little Simon to love, raise and find her anchor in, and the world in general to keep happy. She soon hires Song, (Song Fang) a Chinese film student and nanny to look after her son while she’s away in the day trying to deal with her mad-house life.

Song, a gentle and attentive caretaker takes Simon out to the streets of Paris while Simon plays, eats and answers in few words, Song’s occasional questions.  However, most of their time together remains confined in Sussane's classy but cluttered flat where the two of them are engrossed in a world of their own imagination and come to share a common bubble of fantasy with the red balloon. For Simon it is in discovering a childhood that is carefree and mysterious; for Song, in putting together vibrant footage of red balloons for the subject of her current short film (inspired yet again by Limorisse’s classic film). The two come to form a strange yet compelling form of a childminder-ward relationship where affection and care are rendered in the most exquisite form of communication - silence. And all through the film, in the background of their implicit contact, hovers the unearthly red balloon that goes about in its unobtrusive trail as it becomes their silent vigilante, that cares for, protects and nurtures both of their inner worlds.

Looking for more adventure? There isn't.  Here is a lazy joy ride, and this is the end.

Flight of a Red Balloon is one of the few golden films that flourishes without any elaborates on plot, comedy, exhilaration, tragedy or any such form of plain and (what would seem as) sickly drama. This movie moves forward like a secret charm, with its beautiful form of art lying not in its action but inaction; it lyrically triumphs over any surrounding circumstance and chaos to take up the patience and tranquility of the symbolic red balloon. The scenes that are immensely beautiful, are also the scenes that you could be caught red-eyed in between of, after having snuggled into a sound nap. (Don’t say you weren’t warned beloved drama-seekers.) But we, the reverie lovers will be cast into a surrealistic spell instead. Long shots showing the languid red balloon as it hops over from the tops of trees to trains, from bridges to buildings, from Simon and Song – to the skies, are the kind of scenes that make for the magic. Special mention to be made of another glorious scene in which Hou’s camera drifts from one character to the next for approximately eight minutes in a single theatrically constructed shot without a cut, and captures Simon, Suzanne, Song, an intrusive neighbor and a piano tuner who is working on the family’s old possession, all at one go!

Even the script is done with a modest splendor of its own. Hou Hsiao Hsien wrote the film, as though shooting a silent film, devoid of any dialogue. He then discussed each scene with his actors, who had to concoct their own lines, providing a real life portrayal of the main three characters. (Song Fang was in fact a real-life film student of Hou.) Having said that – watch out for Juliette Binoche – she’s simply scintillating as Susanne. She’s some sort of a mini earthquake in her quiet and jumbled household where Song and Simon live in their own flights of the imagination as she bustles in and out of the house. I can only speak superlatives of her when she plays her role of the pro puppeteer. She reads all parts of the puppet troupe, with her mad-blazing-powerful voice and, she’s a sight for sore eyes!

Hou’s film takes the inspiration for Julia’s profession from his earlier film The Puppetmaster, which concerns artists who work with puppets and whose lives are supported on theatrical tricks. Although this is Hou’s first western film, his themes are in sync with most of his earlier films that focus on the underlying ideas of loneliness and alienation. Color is also an active factor – the film is inundated with autumn hues and the color red that symbolizes good luck, hope and optimism in Hou's Chinese culture.

The film appeared on several critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2008, with The New York Times rating this as 4^th in its list for top films of the year. Dreams and wonderment, interspersed with the clatter of a real world are the operative words in this film. Do yourself a favor – keep away if you find idleness a tedious job. But do bear in mind: for all the slow-moving action, it’s the film’s spirit that soars.

Watch Trailer: