Rail Truck

A tale of two islands and growing up as a stranger in a strange land, told with an artistry that recalls Hou Hsiao-Hsien at his best. Based on Ryunosuke Akutagawa’s short story of the same title (1922), Kawaguchi’s film moves the original early 20th-century Izu Peninsula to present-day Taiwan, where the strength of family ties is singularly put to the test. Yumiko (Machiko Ono), who married against her parents' wishes, has struggled on in stubborn determination since her husband’s death, moving her family from their Tokyo home to the verdant, rural Taiwan village of her in-laws. Her son Atsushi, strongly conscious that in ethnocentric Japan he is "different," is in a state of rebellion against both the society in which he has grown up and his mother. In their new home the family rediscovers the bonds that unite it.

Cast

Machiko Ono Yumiko Yano

Kento Harada Atsushi Yano

Kyōichi Ōmae Kai Yano

Liu Hong Grandpa

Chang Han Meng-Jian (uncle) Mei Fang Grand mother One-Fang Hua-Xin (aunt)

Bryant Chang Zheng-Zhe (birdman)

Metadata from the source database.