Great visuals, story delivers no surprises

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

In CAFE LUMIERE, Hou paid tribute to Ozu. Here it's Lamorisse and his famous short film. I liked this more than any other Hou I've seen so far, which is odd because it seems to be considered one of his lesser films. Perhaps I only like Hou when he's not being so Hou. There was a lot to decode here, but I think one of the primary messages is the meeting of two cultures. The red balloon could be associated with the red prominent in Chinese culture, floating through and discovering Paris much in the same way as the director himself. The balloon seems to watch over and sympathize with the characters but doesn't ever connect. We have Juliette Binoche (in a very warm and relateable performance) practicing the art of Chinese puppet theater, and in her employ is Fang Song (another very likable performer), a Chinese nanny. These characters interact and even have moments of tenderness together, but they are detached, not quite involved in each other's lives. And then there are multitudes of instances being seen through windows, in reflections, through a camera, on a screen, via a child's toy. We are separated, but I see you and watch you with care. Outsiders looking in, doing what they can. I enjoyed my time with these characters and was engaged with their situations, understated though they might be. Lovely photography by one of my favorites, Mark Ping Bin Lee, and a gentle score. Makes me wonder what I've missed in Hou's other films.

This morning when I looked at "The Flight of the Red Balloon" lying on our bistro table waiting to share its journey with me, I realized that I had been avoiding watching it because of how much I love Albert Lamorisse's Red Balloon from 1956. I would like to believe that it's a staple of every household (not just French), every language and art teacher's classroom, and a necessity for anyone who dares to let loose their imagination and dreams.The first scene itself grabbed me with young Simon talking to a red balloon outside the subway entrance, so I settled down and let myself enjoy the rest. It spread a warmth inside me like when soft morning sunlight streams in through closed windows--all is lit, quiet, still, warm, and happy--oblivious of that which might have transpired the day before, lovingly inviting you to a fresh and a new beginning full of possibility.Hou Hsiao Hsien, the 60-year-old born-in-China-raised-in-Taiwan filmmaker, packs in so much and with such adroitness that he makes everything seem simple.The broader context of the film is dark -- frankly, realist -- a single mom, Suzanne, juggling work and care for her children (one of whom is away at school). In her struggle Suzanne races to get it to it all but winds up diluting the quality time she would spend with her 7- year old, Simon, were she not so devoted to her career in puppetry and theater (Juliette Binoche is brilliant as she gives voice to the puppets).The child minder she hires is a Taiwanese film student, Song, who is quiet and aloof in her own way, her attention divided between taking care of Simon's needs and making progress on her film making project--a tribute to Lamorisse's Red Balloon.Simon is self-absorbed as well. He moves from one thing to another, seamlessly, propelled by instinct and sub-consciously felt needs and desires, just as a boy his age would. We watch him practice piano, play on his Playstation, go for long walks in town with Song, speak to the red balloon, talk on the telephone, use the digital movie camera to help Song make her film, and register the adult world conflict and strife albeit peripherally.Three different worlds and levels of consciousness and isolation. Yet, no one seems to make undue demands of one another and everyone seems to try to accommodate others' needs, and in doing so they spin a delicate web of verbal and mostly non-verbal communication-- facial expressions, body language, decor, and silence--as they meet the challenges of modern day living. Hou is able to find the reassuring simplicity in this complex world, and that's what tempers the dark hues and keeps the spirits high.Explaining in an interview with Mathieu Menossi of événe.fr (January 2008) why he chose to re-make Lamorisse's film, Hou says, --and I translate this from French -- It's been fifty years since the original Red Balloon came out, but for me it persists like an old spirit. A soul that did not depart but continued on it's journey to contemplate our current world. (my translation)Hou also says, --again, my translation -- The red balloon represents what resides in all of us in the form of childhood sensibilities and instinct and passion. And from my point of view, the red balloon is me, as the director.The red balloon seems to watch over and observe everyone at play from a distance. It tells us that hope and color survive in adverse circumstances. While it does not interact with the characters in this story--save the very first scene--it does interact with us, the spectators, and has been placed there for us. The red balloon IS us, silently bobbing along, hovering, eavesdropping... It's Hou reminding us that we, too, can be playful and buoyant , rising above the vicissitudes of life that seem to tie us down. And since the balloon is silent, we can supply our own dialog as needed to complete our own story of the "flight." Ironically, but happily, we are captives of Hou's machinations.Hou did not try re-make the same film. He paid homage to the original film by making another beautiful film, symbolically related to its predecessor. And in doing so, he also forced us to ask the question about the place and influence art has in our lives today. This is also a nod to music (piano lessons), painting (Félix Valloton's tableau in the Musée d'Orsay), oral folk traditions (the revival of puppetry as a valid and precious art form of its own), and of course the 7th art (Song making a film using her digital movie camera to pay homage to Lamorisse). The inter-textuality and the mingling of different cultures is particularly elegant and appropriate given the times we live in today.Using the opposition between dark and light, banality and magic, pragmatism and innocence, adulthood and childhood, just like in Félix Vallonton's "le ballon" from 1899, Hou has created a masterpiece that offers layers of color and texture to the viewer with a patient eye.

"Le Voyage du ballon rouge" (2007) was shown in the United States with the title"Flight of the Red Balloon." The film was co-written and directed by Hsiao-hsien Hou.Juliette Binoche stars as Suzanne, who is described as a puppeteer, but who actually directs theatrical works that feature puppets. (Suzanne also provides the voices of the puppets.) Suzanne's life is hectic. Besides the theater she has to contend with an absent (for two years) boyfriend, her daughter from a previous marriage, subletting tenants who don't pay their rent, and the care of her school-age son Simon. Suzanne hires a young Asian film student- -Fang Song--to watch the boy. Song brings an air of tranquility into Suzanne's and Simon's life, and into the movie.Meanwhile, in homage to the classic film, "The Red Balloon," a red balloon hovers near Song and Simon as they travel around Paris. In fact, Song decides to make a film-within-a-film, featuring Simon and, of course, a red balloon.Director Hsiao-hsien Hou is fascinated by mirrors and glass. Many of the scenes are filmed as reflections, or we see the balloon through glass that is also partially reflecting a room or a gallery. Nothing is clear-cut or simple--images and the people they portray are complicated and opaque.Juliette Binoche is one of the most beautiful actors on the screen today. However, in this film, her hair is dyed blonde, and it doesn't enhance her appearance. Her clothes appear to represent whatever she could find quickly in her cluttered apartment, and she's not elegant. No director could make Ms. Binoche unattractive, but in this movie the emphasis is upon her life, not her appearance. Ms. Binoche and Fang Song make a wonderful pair, and the people that enter their lives--piano tuners, furniture movers, piano teachers, puppet masters--are effortlessly drawn into their orbit.This is a wonderful movie if you don't mind a slow, unhurried pace, a lack of traditional plot, and no explosive climax or last-minute denouement. We join Ms. Binoche's troubled life, and Fang Song's quiet life, and we get to walk through Paris alongside them.

Note:anyone who fancies the cinematic overkill bombast of Jerry Bruckheimer,Michael Bay,Roland Emerich,etc.....PLEASE STAY AWAY FROM THIS FILM! That said,'Flight Of The Red Balloon' is a beautiful little film on the human condition. It comments on the Eurocentric lifestyle, as viewed through the Asian perspective. The story concerns a single mother,played to perfection by Juliette Binoche (always welcome on screen,as I've been an ardent fan of her work since 'The Unbearable Lightness Of Being')trying to raise her young son (Simon Iteanu),with an older daughter away at school, all without her absent husband. Also in the mix is an attractive young film student from Taiwan (played by Song Fang)who has been hired as Simon's Au pair,who fits in nicely among the others. Taiwan director Hou Hsiao Hsien (Flowers Of Shanghai, Three Times)has crafted a film that is mesmerizing to look at. Despite the rather hum drum goings on that transpire that in the hands of another director would be unwatchable, Hsien manages to make every day events seem dreamy. The film is a homage (of sorts)to Albert Lamorisse's now legendary film short,'The Red Balloon',in which the balloon acts as companion to a lonely French boy. The balloon,in this case acts as a narrative device,bringing the individual elements together (the humans)for nearly two hours that you can't tear your gaze from.