Chinese director Hsiao-hsien Hou's glorious response to the 1956 classic The Red Balloon commences with a long, nearly silent scene of a boy and his balloon in the Paris metro. Though the film eventually moves to more narrative fare — the child's mother is a frazzled artist (Juliette Binoche) saddled with domestic problems — it never loses sight of that initial lyricism. Like the balloon snaking through every shot, Flight of the Red Balloon floats above the snarl of human drama without detaching from it. The result is a tender assay on the human condition, both as natural and unnatural as a city street on a spring day.