"Together with his friend and colleague Edward Yang, Hou Hsiao-hsien has emerged as the major figure in the 'New Taiwan Cinema'. A Summer at Grandpa's confirms everything suggested by his last film, The Boys from Fengkuei (PFA 4/85) and by his remarkable performance in Edward Yang's Taipei Story (S.F.I.F. '86): that he has an unfailing gift for discovering mystery and magic in the everyday and a particular feeling for Taiwan's indigenous people and culture. Young Tung-Tung and his even younger sister are packed off to their grandparents' home for the summer holiday; it's their first real encounter with the countryside--and with figures from Taiwan's past like their stern grandfather who has been running a country hospital since the days of the Japanese occupation. The film is a seductive but unsentimental collage of their summer experiences, ranging from a disastrous swim in a river to a brush with two young thugs. It is gentle, deeply humane and totally assured." Tony Rayns, Edinburgh Film Festival '85