With work getting hectic she decides to hire an au pair for Simon and in comes Song (Song Fang), a Chinese-born woman who speaks fluent French. Song is almost doting to a T and watchful over Simon and develops a deep and touching bond with him.

Red Balloon

Suzanne is an anxious lady, prone to mood swings and she is frazzled and looks harried on account of this. She is almost always aplogetic after her outburst. And also very generous. Most of her angst comes from a neighbour (Hippolyte Girardot) who her absent husband gave tenancy to in an apartment below her's.The tenant uses her cooking pot to make food for his guests even when she does not want him to. He has not paid the rent to the landlord for several months (She does not know of this until much later). But he tends to everytime rile her and get her hair standing.

Her son in contrast is a fun loving child who enjoys playing pinball, enjoys chasing imaginary balloons, is always asking questions, and remembers his 'pretend sister' who is studying abroad and is learning to play the piano.

Song, on the other hand plays a film student, who always totes a video camera around filming Simon and the fun that he gets into. She immediately takes to Simon and he also likewise. Even Suzanne takes easily to her, buys her gifts, and insists she take them. .

The fourth protagonist is the balloon, which is filmed flitting and floating over the city in a lonely flight. Yet probably keeping watch over Simon wherever he goes.

The Flight of the Red Balloon does have a fine thread of a story, but for most parts is speckled with vignettes from urban life, moments that we all struggle with.
And some of these vignettes are shot beautifully. The camera follows the protagonists, almost getting personal with them. It tracks them as they walk accross the city, on the way home from school. Song and Simon visit a restaurant where he plays pinball, and she watches him with wonder.

While there are exterior street shots a lot of the film has been shot in Suzanne's littered and unkempt apartment.

The film begins with Simon - one of the four main characters - talking to a red balloon in the streets of Paris, before he goes on to board the underground train to get home. The red balloon does a bit of a jig before disappearing, only to emerge and float down to a train station frequented by Simon. It then does the disappearing act as the train leaves the platform.

The film then cuts to a puppet theatre rehearsal where his mother is practising the Chinese art. The camerawork is simple but is extremely creative especially the part when a crowded road parts, a bus drives away to reveal Song for the first time, pacing near a metro station. She then meets her new charge.

And then begins the dialogue between Simon and Song which leads to the build up of their relationship as the film progresses.