A Summer at Grandpa's

"A Summer at Grandpa's" (1984) is a Taiwanese drama by director Hou Hsiao-hsien — watch online on iFILM. Two city kids are packed off to spend the summer with their grandparents in the countryside while their mother recovers in hospital.

Their days fill with things the city never offered: river fishing, tracking down stray cattle, watching the adult world go about its business at close range. Hou Hsiao-hsien's camera doesn't rush any of it — the film sits with the children the way summer itself sits, unhurried and a little strange. Shot during Taiwan's New Wave movement, this quiet coming-of-age story earns its place among the finest work of that era. Stream "A Summer at Grandpa's" online on iFILM.