Flight of the Red Balloon

Filmmaker in Focus: Mark Lee Ping-bing.

Flight of the Red Balloon is Hou Hsiao-hsien’s first feature filmed outside Asia. Commissioned by Paris’s Musée d’Orsay and inspired by Albert Lamorisse’s beloved 1956 short The Red Balloon, the film transplants Hou’s distinctive cinematic language to Paris. It also marks cinematographer Mark Lee Ping-bing’s first feature shot in France, anticipating his later collaborations with French filmmakers including Tran Anh Hung and Gilles Bourdos, and his continued work on productions filmed in France.

The film follows Simon, a young boy living in Paris with his mother, Suzanne (Juliette Binoche), a busy puppeteer. When Song, a Taiwanese film student, becomes Simon’s new babysitter, she accompanies him through his daily routines. Meanwhile, a mysterious red balloon drifts above the city, quietly shadowing their lives.

In French dialogues with English subtitles.

Cast:
Juliette Binoche, Song Fang, Hippolyte Girardot

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Part of Made in Taiwan Hou Hsiao-hsien, Taiwan, France, 2007, 115m.