A comic story of two neighbors and their daughters' affairs of the heart provides the framework for a gentle message of ethnic harmony. The curmudgeonly friendship between the neighbors, Mr. Chang and Mr. Cheng, thrives despite the fact that the former speaks only Taiwanese, the latter, Mandarin. Theirs is a model relationship for a society still in the throes of assimilating large numbers of immigrants from mainland China. The theme is treated with remarkable deftness considering the political pressures of the time, which left little leeway for any serious treatment of ethnic conflicts between mainlanders and Taiwanese. In 1961, Sweet Home was on the cutting edge, both stylistically and thematically. Zhong Yiou, whose film career began as an actor in Shanghai, played a major role in the Taiwan cinema as one of its earliest directors.