Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress Movie Review 2002

Sijie dreamily adapts his own autobiographical novel depicting life in a remote Chinese mountain village in 1971. City boys Luo (Chen) and Ma (Liu) are sent to be re-educated under Mao's Cultural Revolution. The young men perform manual labor under the watchful eyes of the village chief (Wang) and both become attracted to the nameless young woman (Zhou) of the title, reading to her from a secreted cache of Western books (including Balzac, Flaubert, and Dumas) and teaching her to read and write. There is eventual separation and loss and an abrupt epilogue that shows the men 20 years later wondering whatever happened to the girl they once knew. Mandarin and French with subtitles.

Distribution

Movies Unlimited, 3015 Darnell Rd., Philadelphia, PA 19154, Phone: (215)637-4444, Toll-free: 800-668-4344, Fax: (215)637-2350, Email: movies@moviesunlimited.com, URL: http://www.moviesunlimited.com

Available on DVD
Running time 111 minutes.
Originally from Chinese, French.

Cast and Crew

Genres

Biopics: Politics, China, Period Piece: 1970s, Romantic Drama, Romantic Triangles, Abortion, Communists & Communism

Screenplay

Dai Sijie, Nadine Perront

Cast

Liu Ye, Wang Hongwei, Ziiou Xun, Chen Kun, Wang Shuangbao, Chung Zhijun

Cinematography

Jean-Marie Drejou

Director

Dai Sijie

Music

Wang Pujian

Other

Wu Lala, Nilas Nacgelen, Luc Barnier, Julia Gregory, Tong Huamiao, Cao Jumping

Producer

Lise Fayolle, TF-1 Films, Bac Distribution