I enjoyed The Mountain, Fast and Slow. It is a sweet short film from Taiwan by Guan-yu Chen that awakens our awareness of a rural family in Taiwan. The interaction of the two children with their environment gives us insight into what life is like in this culture.
This short film follows two young children, Yun-Yun and Xu-Xu exploring the world around them in the mountains of central Taiwan. We watch them as they help harvest vegetables, sometimes half as big as they are.
This is a lovely multi-cultural short film that shows how families in rural area of Taiwan might live. The camera work is superb, especially the closeups on bugs and insects. The two young children that are our guides here share their experiences in the world around them as they eat fresh vegetables from the garden or fill up their yellow basket until it is overflowing and almost too heavy to for them to carry. The background music is pretty simple and neither adds nor detracts from the film. Although the children speak occasionally, their dialogue is mainly geared to what they are doing and not really instructional. They speak in Chinese which is subtitled in English. My favorite part is when they make a meal, a hot pot, with the help of an adult who is probably their father. They combine the vegetables they have harvested in a pot over a fire outside, then they sit down together and a woman (the mother) joins them.
The film's message is simply about what life is like for a rural Taiwanese family, shown from a child's point of view.
I give The Mountain, Fast and Slow 4 out of 5 stars and recommend it for ages 5 to 8, plus adults. By Julie S., KIDS FIRST!
I enjoyed The Mountain, Fast and Slow. It is a sweet short film from Taiwan by Guan-yu Chen that awakens our awareness of a rural family in Taiwan. The interaction of the two children with their environment gives us insight into what life is like in this culture.
This short film follows two young children, Yun-Yun and Xu-Xu exploring the world around them in the mountains of central Taiwan. We watch them as they help harvest vegetables, sometimes half as big as they are.
This is a lovely multi-cultural short film that shows how families in rural area of Taiwan might live. The camera work is superb, especially the closeups on bugs and insects. The two young children that are our guides here share their experiences in the world around them as they eat fresh vegetables from the garden or fill up their yellow basket until it is overflowing and almost too heavy to for them to carry. The background music is pretty simple and neither adds nor detracts from the film. Although the children speak occasionally, their dialogue is mainly geared to what they are doing and not really instructional. They speak in Chinese which is subtitled in English. My favorite part is when they make a meal, a hot pot, with the help of an adult who is probably their father. They combine the vegetables they have harvested in a pot over a fire outside, then they sit down together and a woman (the mother) joins them.
The film's message is simply about what life is like for a rural Taiwanese family, shown from a child's point of view.
I give The Mountain, Fast and Slow 4 out of 5 stars and recommend it for ages 5 to 8, plus adults. By Julie S., KIDS FIRST!
Yun-Yun and Xu-Xu live in the mountains of central Taiwan. Their favorite thing is exploring their large mountain home. The mountain is covered with orange trees, and during harvest time, their dad picks oranges while the kids play with big boxes or leaves, sliding down the slopes. They also love the vegetable garden on their own mountain, where they have endless fruits to eat, endless vegetables to pick, and farming activities such as drying radishes and pickling salted vegetables. There are so many fun things to do in the mountains that time slows down. During the warm winter days, the two discover how fast and slow work among insects and plants. The mountain reveals the rhythms of fast and slow.
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