Growing Up (1983 film)

Growing Up
Directed byChen Kunhou
Written byHou Hsiao-hsien
Chu T’ien-wen
StarringDoze Niu
Release date
  • December 1983 (1983-12)
Running time
100 minutes
CountryTaiwan
LanguageMandarin

Growing Up (Chinese: 小畢的故事; pinyin: Xiǎobì De Gùshì) is a 1983 film by Taiwanese filmmaker Chen Kunhou. The screenplay was the first collaboration between Hou Hsiao-hsien and Chu T’ien-wen. The film made the young star, Doze Niu, "a pop icon and tagged him with a rebellious image."[1]

Growing Up was the film that "first attracted broad critical and popular attention to the movement" known as New Taiwan Cinema. It "established some of the movement's key stylistic approaches and narrative concerns, with its subdued manner in relating the story of an adolescent boy grappling with everyday pangs amid Taiwan's fraught provincial context."[2] The film was selected as the Taiwanese entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 56th Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.[3]

  1. ^ Ho, Yi (23 April 2008), "Niu Chen-zer was once so wrong, but now he's so right", Taipei Times
  2. ^ Choi, Edo S.; Iovene, Paola, "A Time for Freedom: Taiwanese filmmakers in transition", Doc Films Spring 2009 Volume 3 Issue 3, Doc film society, University of Chicago, archived from the original on 9 June 2009, retrieved 14 April 2009
  3. ^ Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences