Red Persimmon (1996) User Reviews

Director Wang Tung reminisces about growing up as a mainlander in Taiwan

[gmwhite · 8/10 · 24 April 2006]

Red Persimmon begins with a family preparing to flee mainland China after the communist victory in 1949. Leaving in a hurry, they can take little with them, while also hoping for a quick return home. When the family takes a boat to Taiwan, the father, a KMT commander, stays behind. The mother, with her nine children and their grandma, take up residence in a Japanese style house in Taipei and wait for news.

So begins this charming film, which expresses itself through vignettes that eventually cover a long period of time, rather than through a tightly woven plot. It is perhaps one of the director's most personal films, since it is quite autobiographical. It is also quite long and loosely structured, which suits the reminiscent feel of the material well. There would be little point in recounting details of the plot, and it suffices to highlight a few basic themes: the need of the family, and especially the father, to 'move on' after losing the mainland and everything they left behind there. There are the usual struggles of growing up, growing old, and struggling to make a living, though none of these are greatly emphasised so as to become long story arcs.

So loosely structured, even unfocused, and yet it works, much like human life itself when it is lived. These are the director's memories of growing up. Many in his Taiwanese audience, no doubt, share them. As such, it is a film which concentrates on the mainlanders' experiences to a far greater extent than their effect on the native Taiwanese. Other director's however, have touched on such issues, and there is no obligation to cover every aspect of a given situation. This is a personal film from the director, and relates his own family's experiences. As such, it does a commendable job, especially in capturing a 'period feel' (though without the musical soundtrack). It may no be to everyone's taste, but readers will be able to judge from this brief description whether it may be of interest to them or not.

Full of flaws

[housearrestedever · 1/10 · 14 December 2022]

1) A KMT general who was fighting against Communist rebels all over the front lines would not have so much time to visit home to make babies like what we have seen in this movie. But what we saw is that this guy had so many kids that he couldn't even recognize them one by one. All these kids obviously were his and his wife's offspring.

2) This general's wife didn't look like a woman who had almost 10 kids by her own. Her physical condition was way too healthy and too young to have so many kids.

3) She was also the worst cast to play the mother role. Not only she didn't look like a women who had so many kids, there's no motherhood existed between her and her kids, they were like strangers. So she was the weakest and the worst cast in this movie.

4) When they escaped to Taiwan, there's no way the mother and the kids would have the privilege to move into a big house left by the Japanese. The allocation of the housing for the general and his family would not be possible to go through a civilian woman who welcomed them when they arrived.

5) One of the most ridiculous flaw in this movie is the accents of the kids, they all spoke Taiwanese Mandarin in 1949, instead of the mainland China Mandarin. Their accents among them were also so different from each other, so it just so ridiculous.

The reasons that stopped us to watch further were all listed above, but mainly because of the poor actress who played the mother and the unrealistic accents from the kids.

This is a terribly cast and scripted movie.