Preface#
While relaxing and listening to a podcast over the weekend, I stumbled upon a movie poster that seemed to strike me. The poster, set against an ocean backdrop, looked incredibly beautiful. Upon closer inspection, I saw the title "The Red Horse in the Summer Sky." With such a peculiar name, I felt a surge of curiosity and searched online, only to find out that this film was released in Taiwan on December 23, 2022, in areas including Taipei, Taoyuan, Hsinchu, Tainan, Taichung, and Kaohsiung. The director is the renowned Taiwanese filmmaker Chang Tso-chi, and this film also earned him a nomination for Best Director at the 59th Golden Horse Awards.
The film did not create any waves on the mainland internet. Besides the fact that it was not screened in domestic theaters, the film's subject matter was too niche, and it did not receive much attention even in the Taiwanese film industry. I checked its Douban rating, which was only 5.0, with nearly half of the users giving it one or two stars. Many reviews commented, "I don't know what it's about, I can't understand," "It's so boring, feels like there's no plot," "The sound of snoring from the back row of the cinema was incessant" (Taiwanese movie fans are quite funny 😂), etc. This seems to create a stark contrast with the awards the film received. What kind of magic does this film possess to garner so many negative reviews despite such a small audience?
Out of curiosity, I found a source to watch the film, wanting to see what story "The Red Horse in the Summer Sky" tells. Another reason I was so eager to explore was because of that poster; it seemed to have a magical allure that pulled me into this ordinary yet extraordinary story...
Plot Summary#
A girl named A-Zhen leaves home and arrives at a seaside town in search of her biological father, whom she has never met. In the town, she befriends three brothers: A-Han, A-Ting, and A-Liang. Their mother is seriously ill and has been in a nursing home for years. Their father takes the brothers to visit their mother every day, pulling them along with a rope. Day after day, until they receive the news of their mother's passing... On a summer day with the sun blazing, after spending several days with this family, A-Zhen's mother suddenly visits, breaking the tranquility of the town. It turns out that A-Zhen's journey is not just about finding her father; she seems to have many unexplainable stories, and ultimately, she leaves without a word. After her departure, the four men continue their ordinary lives.
Cinematic Language and Visual Style#
"The Red Horse in the Summer Sky" fully showcases director Chang Tso-chi's highly personal visual style. There are numerous wide shots that allow the camera to gaze at the sky, seascapes, streetlights, drifting trash, and that red horse balloon. The father and his three sons have different ways of interacting; the eldest brother A-Wei rarely returns home, yet his longing for home is still evident in the limited screen time; the second brother A-Ting, though intellectually challenged, always worries about their bedridden mother; the youngest brother A-Liang, who is somewhat "excessive" in the family, enjoys painting and often gazes at the sky, yet he also faces his own life's bitterness and helplessness. There’s also the girl Xie Huizhen, who mistakenly identifies A-Zhen as her father; she has unresolved issues with her mother and ex-boyfriend.
The film features many thought-provoking set designs. Throughout the film, the director sets up vast landscapes as canvases, with very few characters as embellishments, presented before the audience. The overall tone of the film is quite somber, heavily utilizing a Japanese hazy filter, which keeps the emotional tone of the film calm and even complements its melancholy, highlighting a sense of sorrow and emptiness.
In addition to its unique set designs, the film intersperses many seemingly useless, even nonsensical, shots throughout the narrative. For example, at the beginning of the film, nearly four minutes are spent filming the coastline, capturing layer upon layer of waves. Later in the film, there are multiple shots of scenery, such as overgrown woods, the sea under the night haze, and lakes filled with trash. Many might think there’s nothing special about this; many art films use scenery to transition scenes. However, what sets "The Red Horse in the Summer Sky" apart is that each scenic segment is given a long duration and has no causal or thematic connection to the story's development, making the film's pace feel very slow. During my viewing, I even found myself immersed in the film's scenery, gradually forgetting that I was there to explore the story's progression.
Profound and Meaningful Plot Setting#
The Conflict Between Xie Huizhen and Her Father Chen Youming#
In addition to establishing a calm yet highly infectious tone visually, the film's narrative technique and perspective imbue it with the essence of everyday life while embedding a heavy and somber atmosphere. The protagonists are a father living in a remote seaside town and his three sons. The eldest brother A-Wei, around 20 years old, rarely returns home and works outside, primarily handling paperwork and odd jobs; the second brother A-Ting is intellectually disabled and cannot care for himself, but he has a pure heart; the youngest brother A-Liang, about 16 or 17, enjoys painting and often sits by the sea gazing at the sky. He takes good care of his intellectually challenged brother A-Ting while feeling very inferior, always thinking of himself as "excessive." Their father Chen Youming is a construction worker operating an excavator, earning a meager salary. His wife, who was not very bright in her youth, unfortunately fell into the water and became a vegetable, lying in a nursing home for years. However, Chen Youming loves his wife deeply and is very strict with his three sons, especially regarding their attitude towards their mother. The female lead, Xie Huizhen, is a girl who loves to fantasize but is strictly required by her mother to take care of her disabled brother. She is also informed by her mother that her biological father is Chen Youming. Thus, she rides her bicycle, leaving her brother behind, to this remote seaside town to find her biological father, and the story unfolds from there.
I want to say that this type of subject matter, if following conventions or established logic, could certainly be made to be very touching. We could even speculate on the plot's development: the girl confronts her biological father whom she has never met, tensions rise, and ultimately, she is moved, understands her father, leading to a heartwarming family reunion. However, "The Red Horse in the Summer Sky" does not include any of this; it does not follow such a straightforward plotline but unfolds at a very natural and slow pace, without the expected arguments or heightened conflicts. When the girl Xie Huizhen meets her long-lost biological father Chen Youming, there is no hatred; she merely wants to see her father, to see the home he lives in and her blood-related brothers. Chen Youming initially shows some impatience but knows deep down that he is in the wrong, filled with guilt, silently singing in a simple rural KTV, his voice hoarse and off-key, expressing emotions he has never articulated. Meanwhile, the girl does not insist on seeking explanations or compensation; she simply rides her bicycle through the countryside, watching her brother go out to fish, observing her father at work, listening to him sing, and sitting in her father's shabby rural home, feeling the warmth of family. Ultimately, a conflict surrounding the film comes to a subtle conclusion during a scene celebrating A-Ting's birthday, where everyone gathers to celebrate, singing the birthday song. Xie Huizhen happily sits aside, taking photos with her phone, her face showing joy and happiness. In the film, she says, "She has never felt this way before." The film omits many tedious setups and instead highlights through this segment that the father has accepted this daughter, acknowledged her as his kin, and embraced the bond of family, while also introducing one of the film's main themes—family love can transcend time and even death.
Do Family Bonds Restrict Our Freedom in Life?#
After watching the entire film, upon reflection, a significant portion of it narrates the bonds between family members: the bond between Chen Youming and his wife in a vegetative state, the bond between Chen Youming and his three sons, the bond between Xie Huizhen and Chen Youming, and the bond between Xie Huizhen and her disabled brother. When we analyze these bonds, we find that the characters' fates seem forever trapped in this seaside town, facing life and death. This town seems to symbolize a cage, a prison that confines everyone. Even if you have not lived there, you can still be pulled back into this cage due to these bonds.
The film also contains many dialogues hinting at these metaphors. For example, the youngest brother A-Liang suddenly says to his father, "Mom is suffering, let her be free." Upon hearing this, Chen Youming becomes furious, scolding A-Liang, "She is your mother, who raised you!" In another instance, Xie Huizhen's ex-boyfriend angrily leaves her, shouting, "This is how you are; you can't let go of your brother, can you? You'll always be like this!" Additionally, when the second brother A-Ting accidentally soils his clothes, their father Chen Youming angrily slaps A-Liang, scolding, "What did I tell you? He is your brother; why didn't you take care of him?" These familial bonds act like a rope, tying every related person together, just as Chen Youming said to his wife before she passed away: "I have taken good care of the three of them; I tied them to me with a rope, so they won't get lost."
However, do these family bonds truly bring happiness to those deeply entrenched in them? The disabled brother, whom Xie Huizhen cares for, desperately wants to die, pushing his wheelchair towards the lake in search of an end. Xie Huizhen tightly grips the wheelchair, crying and shouting, while her brother screams, "Let go! Let me go!!" This is deeply shocking. Furthermore, the four of them visit their unconscious mother in the nursing home weekly, yet they live in extreme poverty. Besides operating the excavator, Chen Youming spends his remaining time sitting in front of a shabby television, singing off-key. The eldest brother does not want to stay home and always finds excuses to work outside. The second brother A-Ting and the youngest brother A-Liang spend their days idly by the sea, painting and fishing. Each person's life is fixed, devoid of vitality and happiness, filled only with helplessness and heaviness.
This seems to contradict the film's theme of "family bonds." However, upon closer examination, things always have two sides. The bonds of family bring us comfort and companionship, yet they also tightly lock each person's fate, restricting our freedom and individuality. Perhaps the eldest brother A-Wei attempts to break free from this constraint, escaping the cage formed by these bonds, which is why he chooses not to return home often. Director Chang Tso-chi cleverly embeds such profound and contradictory themes within a simple narrative, waiting for the audience to uncover them.
What is the Elusive "Red Horse"?#
The film is titled "The Red Horse in the Summer Sky," so where is the red horse in the film? If you watch closely, you'll find that the "red horse" appears very few times. It can even be overlooked. The red horse first appears when the girl Xie Huizhen and her ex-boyfriend choose a large inflatable red horse among a pile of amusement toys. They then take the horse to the beach, but the ex-boyfriend argues with the girl because she cannot let go of her disabled brother, and he shoots the "red horse" with a toy gun filled with BB pellets, causing it to deflate. The deflated "red horse" drifts further away with the waves, leaving Xie Huizhen standing there, sobbing. After that, the "red horse" seems to disappear entirely until the film's conclusion, when the floating deflated "red horse" reaches the lake by the four men's small home. The second brother A-Ting shows interest in the "red horse," so the youngest brother A-Liang retrieves it to repair and inflate it. The "red horse" floats up again, and the youngest brother leads the floating red horse as they walk along the beach with their father and brothers, bringing the film to a gentle close.
Many viewers, including myself, felt puzzled, wondering, "Is this the 'red horse'? Is that how it ends?" It left us scratching our heads. However, upon reflecting on these segments after finishing the film, I began to grasp the director's intent and understand what the "red horse" truly represents. The "red horse" can be interpreted in many ways. My perspective is that the red horse symbolizes the characters' ultimate resolution of their inner conflicts and pain after being trapped in the bonds of "family love." Initially, the "red horse" is deflated, limp, and lifeless, drifting with the waves, symbolizing the characters' plight in the first half of the film. Whether it is Chen Youming, who is deeply entrenched in poverty, burdened by the pressure of his wife's vegetative state and his underage children, or Xie Huizhen, who is desperately searching for her biological father while feeling constrained by family ties, they are like the deflated "red horse," having lost the courage to fight against life, losing hope for tomorrow, surrendering their fate to the waves.
In contrast, the "red horse" that eventually soars back into the sky seems to reflect the characters' regained confidence in life and renewed hope for tomorrow in the latter half of the film. Over a year later, after Xie Huizhen leaves the town and starts a new life, she gets married and has a child who is one or two years old. While crossing a traffic light, she unexpectedly encounters her brothers A-Ting and A-Liang on a crowded crosswalk. They do not recognize each other, but in a moment of daze, Xie Huizhen suddenly turns her head to look at her brothers, who are gradually disappearing into the crowd. Her husband beside her asks, "Friends?" Xie Huizhen smiles and replies, "A very happy person." Meanwhile, the father and brothers also begin a new life. Two years after their mother's passing, Chen Youming surprisingly shakes off his previous fatigue and sorrow, starting to practice calligraphy in the yard, while his future daughter-in-law is happily cutting A-Liang's hair, and they exchange playful banter. Chen Youming tells A-Liang, "Call your brother sometime, ask how he's doing." It seems everyone has begun to find a new direction in life, regaining the information and courage to live, and once again harboring expectations and wishes for tomorrow, just like the soaring "red horse," full of vitality.
Final Thoughts#
After watching the entire film, I feel that there is much to explore and savor in this piece. Clearly, the artistic merit of this film far exceeds its Douban rating of 5.0. I believe the reason many people report a poor viewing experience or find it tedious is that this film is too out of sync with the present. In today's rapidly advancing technological era of the 21st century, realistic and flashy special effects have become commonplace, with tightly woven plots and dramatic twists being the hallmark of good films. However, "The Red Horse in the Summer Sky" lacks all of these elements. Moreover, the film is set around the year 2000, and it features many blank scenic shots, with many plot points not explained but directly jumped over. Additionally, the film has no musical score, whether intentionally done by the director or not. The film contains very few dialogues, with only a faint musical score in the closing part, and throughout the film, there is no additional sound editing. The sounds of crashing waves, the rustling of grass and trees in the wind, rain, and birds chirping create a series of white noise. When characters speak, the background white noise diminishes, and when the dialogue ends, the white noise returns to normal. This detail cannot even be considered a detail, as anyone who watches the film attentively will notice the significant difference from the sound recording methods used in most contemporary films.
At the same time, it is undeniable that the film's artistic conceptualization is very strong. There is no bright story arc throughout the film, even the main storyline of Xie Huizhen searching for her biological father abruptly halts in the middle of the film. Returning to the film itself, it is one that does not conform to mainstream trends. Chang Tso-chi's film has a slow pace, low dramatic tension, and lacks dramatic conflict, focusing instead on depicting various details of life. In addition to common dining scenes, he incorporates many empty shots: clouds, sky, seascapes, streetlights, drifting trash, etc. These empty shots reflect the youngest son A-Liang's state of being: often alone, gazing at the sky, contemplating nature, and finding his most comfortable position within it. He is the most stable presence among the three brothers, bearing the responsibility of caring for his intellectually challenged brother A-Ting. These empty shots also reflect Chang Tso-chi's own state of being: I want to include so many natural empty shots, even if some viewers may find them tedious, monotonous, or boring. Yet, it is precisely the grandeur and vastness of nature that highlight the ugliness and obstruction caused by human waste in the film. However, the characters coexist peacefully with the trash; perhaps they have grown accustomed to living with it, perhaps they feel powerless to change their environment, or perhaps they are calmly facing the harsh reality of a life of poverty.
In the latter part of the film, the father and the intellectually disabled second brother A-Ting sing off-key in their shabby little house:
The sky gradually brightens
The clouds gradually part
The wind gradually blows
The rain gradually falls
Whether it's summer or winter or windy days
Life goes on like this
In the garden, butterflies are flying
Flying... where to?
They know that everyone in life suffers, but what can be done? Tomorrow will still come, and loss and suffering will follow. What can we do? Where can we escape to?
Only by loving it can we live well.
Perhaps when you look up on a summer day, there is also a red horse floating in the sky. 🐴