Plot

Winner of the 1983 Golden Horse Award (Taiwan's Oscar) for Best Picture and Best Direction, Growing Up is a remarkably unsentimental account of young Xiaobi's progress from mischievous youth to uncertain adult. Along the way, this film, by one of Taiwan's emerging group of talented young directors, manages to avoid the plot conventions that often plague Chinese family dramas. Set in the northern coastal town of Tamsui and narrated by the girl next door (with whom our hero resolutely does not fall in love) Growing Up is alternately quite funny and touching. From the earliest scenes, Xiaobi shows off his remarkable penchant for getting into trouble, whether it be at school, at play (on the docks and in the alleyways of town) or at home (where he vies with his stoic stepfather for his long-suffering mother's attention and affection). Not until tragedy strikes near the end is Xiaobi strayed from his course of almost criminal behavior, and his "reform" is handled in very low-key fashion. Performances, especially by the various actors playing Xiaobi at different ages and by Chang Chun-fang as his mother, are all outstanding.

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