Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
by Sijie Dai
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DVD details
Actor: Kun Chen, Shuangbao Wang, Xun Zhou, Ye Liu, Zhijun CongDirector: Sijie Dai
Cinematographer: Jean-Marie Dreujou
Writer: Sijie Dai
Producer: Bernard Lorain
Producer: Lise Fayolle
Producer: Pujian Wang
Producer: Wang Zhebin
Writer: Nadine Perront
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: Mandarin Chinese (Unknown); English (Subtitled); French (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 110 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-11-29
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: First Run Features
DVD Reviews of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
DVD Review: BEAUTIFUL PICTURE
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a spectacular movie filmed in the most awesome scenery of lush,green mountains which are no more (a dam was placed there instead). A tragic, yet comic drama, with wonderful acting. The author is also the film-maker and the book is a MUST.DVD Review: Education of a little seamtress
Summary: 4 Stars
In the last 10 minutes of the film,I am sure many people are like me trying to figure out where the seamstress is.Her name is not on one of paper boats so she is not dead;she is not married to the dentist.It is very clever of the writer.Finally,we heard rumors that she went to Shenzhen and Hong Kong.A beautiful yet uneducated peasant girl more than likely ends up as prostitute or mistress of rich men in metropolis.It is "My fair lady" with a twist.
She said she was inspired by Balzac.Does it mean books are dangerous,causing people to run away from home,justifying the Communist line? I don't think so.She is an innocent peasant susceptible to all sorts of influence,just like the village chief who blindly lives his life according to Mao's red book without questioning.
They lack analytical thinking,unlike Ma and Luo.Also,she has a wild streak.Remember she was the one who suggested stealing the books.
She has always wondered about what it is like outside the village.She would look up at the airplanes flying by.The 2 intellectuals have so impressed her that she decided to go away to have a look.But by herself.
When she had abortion,Luo was not there,this must have been devastating for her,perhaps making her decide to leave alone?Or maybe she thought she might get into trouble with the authorities if she let Luo follows.Or maybe she thought people like Luo and Ma are a dime a dozen outside the village.Or perhaps she thought if she ended up with one,the other would be devastated. It is also "Jules et Jim" with a twist.This is the beauty of the movie.Life is mysterious.If it were a soap-opera,Luo would get rehabilitated and they would get married and have 2 kids.
Four Eyes,unlike Luo and Ma,is an intellectual without integrity.He is an opportunist,a conformist,trying too hard to please the power that be,only to be whipped by the ox,an animal he proclaimed proudly to have tamed in front of the Re-education Committee,almost losing his glasses if not for Luo and Ma and the blood of which he drank and got diarrhea.Little seamstress hates him. Whereas when the highly-respected old tailor wanted to teach Luo all he knew about sewing on the condition that the latter give up reading "dangerous" books,Luo refused,saying "I am too clumsy".
In the 80s and 90s,China was embracing capitalism and she misinterpreted Balzac's"Beauty is priceless".Love got her a painful abortion.She had tasted her precious first love.Subsequent lovers would not mean that much.Why not become a material girl,she might have thought.
I try to read her mind but I might be wrong.And I haven't read the book which might give more insights.
She said that fake snow was better than real snow and movies recounted were better than movies watched.Movies are already digests of reality so a digest of a digest is even better!This enters the realm of post-modern art theory.Does it lead her to think that fake love for sale is better?
This movie can be compared with "Life is beautiful".Both look at tragedy from a lighter angle.It is with a light heart that people survive.The violinist cried in the doctor's office not for the seamstress but for Fou Lei,the translator of the piece the doctor was reading.The movie did not mention this but Fou Lei and his wife could not stand the persecution and committed suicide.They are not fictional characters.Their son is the famous Chopin expert Fou Tseng.
I don't give it 5 star because it smacks a little bit of elitism.Knowledge is important in a dangerous world but it is no match for crass capitalism.
Some humor was lost in the translation.Ma was telling the story of "Count of Monte Cristo" to the old tailor when the village chief eavesdropped."Count of Monte Cristo"in Chinese is "Ji Du Shan Bo Jue".But the village chief thought he was talking about Jesus because he misheard"Ji Du Sheng Bai Jiao" which means "Jesus Christ grows a hundred legs"!Religion was strictly forbidden in that era so Ma got into trouble.
The old tailor asked,"Why don't you talk about old Chinese classics" and Ma said,"The story takes place faraway,if you don't like it,I won't tell you." This is the DARKEST part of Chinese history and the director/writer manages to find lighter and funny moments and the protagonists turned the table around,like in the movie "The Servant".
If you understand what went on during the Cultural Revolution,you would appreciate this movie more.Ma needed to look like a peasant in the hospital and wore a funny white furry vest.I am pleasantly surprised that people without much knowledge of that period still enjoy the movie.Maybe it works on many levels!!A love triangle in a tumultuous time,etc.
To all the young people who comes to Amazon.com,stay in school or go back to school,you never know when knowledge comes in handy.One of my goals is to go to the Western poor part of China to help the students who have to walk across mountain to attend schools everyday and some of them die of carbon monoxide poisoning in winter when the school burns coal to keep warm.
We take freedom of information for granted in the west.Do you know that when Gutengurg invented printing press,rulers were afraid of it and made laws to limit its use i.e censorship.Only those people belonging to an organization can be printers.Only in London,Cambridge and Oxford can print shops be set up and the books had to be approved by bishops.Henry VIII banned foreign books.An average joe printed a pamphlet had his hands cut off in public.This is just like what the old tailor said."My grand-daughter has changed(by books)".This frightens me,making "my hands tremble"."Books can change a person"."Don't read,books are lies,do something practical such as sew clothes.I can teach you!"
There are clips of interviews of the actors who play Ma and Luo and the actress who plays the little seamstress on Youtube.It is in Mandarin Chinese with French subtitles.For those who don't speak these language,I'll translate the gist.The actor who played Luo said that Luo's love for little seamstress is a rebellion against traditional feudal values because she is a simple peasant who is beneath an intellectual.(I thought it was Mao's intent to subvert feudalism too) Anyway,this may explain why Four eyes would rather hang around with his mom than a beautiful woman.Also,he said that literature is a bridge through which Luo touches her heart.This I agree.
DVD Review: Inevitable mutability of all things in modern life
Summary: 5 Stars
An invaluably sad but exceptionally beautiful work of art realistically depicting instability and mutability of all things in modern life. It's inevitably fluid like nature of human evolution between one ?poque to another influenced by new trends of individualism, nuclear family and globalisation in particular in this story. All these evolutions comes at a terrible costs to stability of our emotional life and collapse of traditional sense of community, almost always followed by a devastatingly painful separation.
I can feel ethereal touch of Author's remnant filial love to his mother country China. It is easy to see that the Author was torn between his deep seated love for old China before the cultural revolution and Ambition for prosperity on his chosen land (France) at the moment of his life time decision making. This is something that not many understand unless you are forced to leave from your homeland and love ones for a cause. I have left Japan , Kyoto and a noble born beloved fianc?e along with almost all things I perceived exquisite at that time for an ambitious cause. Now I am in a terrible state of homesick.
Sentimentalism is further augmented by an outstanding soundtracks with his genius touch in a perfect synchronisation with emotion portrayed in screenplay. Since I have played harpsichord continuo accompaniment part of George Frederick Handle's tragic operas such as Alcina, Otone and Radamisto for student soprano singers during rehearsals in the past, I can readily feel Author's masterful quality of refined artistic mind in every scene. Author must be someone who understands classical and baroque music quite well. Pachelbel, Haendel, Scarlatti and Albinoni in particular.
This is a second film that I bought for my collection of Dai Sijie's works. I am also a fan of Les Filles du Botaniste. It is such a sad film but exquisite work of art. I must admit that he is a genius of screenplay depicting moments of such a painful separation and innate strength of women. Every young woman has dreams of being swept up into a great adventure, of being the beautiful princess. Lamentably, when women grow up, they are often swept up into a life filled merely with demands, duty and responsibility. Many women are tired, struggling under the merciless pressure to be of a faithful servant, or a caregiver for children, husband or authoritarian father as seen in Les Filles du Botaniste. Who else can reproduce the sentiment so vividly on the screen with such poetic touch today? Perhaps no one else but refined humanist Director Dai Sijie! Julien Kujo, Palo Alto, California
DVD Review: Beautiful Cinematography, Deeply moved by the story
Summary: 5 Stars
An invaluably sad but exceptionally beautiful work of art realistically depicting instability and mutability of all things in modern life. It's inevitably fluid like nature of human evolution between one ?poque to another influenced by new trends of individualism, nuclear family and globalisation in particular in this story. All these evolutions comes at a terrible costs to stability of our emotional life and collapse of traditional sense of community, almost always followed by a devastatingly painful separation.
I can feel ethereal touch of Author's remnant filial love to his mother country China. It is easy to see that the Author was torn between his deep seated love for old China before the cultural revolution and Ambition for prosperity on his chosen land (France) at the moment of his life time decision making. This is something that not many understand unless you are forced to leave from your homeland and love ones for a cause. I have left Japan , Kyoto and a noble born beloved fianc?e along with almost all things I perceived exquisite at that time for an ambitious cause. Now I am in a terrible state of homesick.
Sentimentalism is further augmented by an outstanding soundtracks with his genius touch in a perfect synchronisation with emotion portrayed in screenplay. Since I have played harpsichord continuo accompaniment part of George Frederick Handle's tragic operas such as Alcina, Otone and Radamisto for student soprano singers during rehearsals in the past, I can readily feel Author's masterful quality of refined artistic mind in every scene. Author must be someone who understands classical and baroque music quite well. Pachelbel, Haendel, Scarlatti and Albinoni in particular.
This is a second film that I bought for my collection of Dai Sijie's works. I am also a fan of Les Filles du Botaniste. It is such a sad film but exquisite work of art. I must admit that he is a genius of screenplay depicting moments of such a painful separation and innate strength of women. Every young woman has dreams of being swept up into a great adventure, of being the beautiful princess. Lamentably, when women grow up, they are often swept up into a life filled merely with demands, duty and responsibility. Many women are tired, struggling under the merciless pressure to be of a faithful servant, or a caregiver for children, husband or authoritarian father as seen in Les Filles du Botaniste. Who else can reproduce the sentiment so vividly on the screen with such poetic touch today? Perhaps no one else but refined humanist Director Dai Sijie! Julien Kujo, Palo Alto, California
DVD Review: Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress is a film well worth watching.
Summary: 5 Stars
Sijie Dai's film has been commented on here by many so i will not bore you with the details. As a true student of film all of my life i try to view as many films as i can from as many varied sources as i can. to date i have now seen over 100 films from china and i would certainly rate this one in the top 10%.
not all films can be all things to all people, but this one comes as close as you can get in my opinion because there is a great balance between all the elements that make up a film - story line, characters, setting, time frame, director, actors, cinematography, educational & artistic value, et al. it is also a great educational film for those of us in the west who may not have such a good idea of what went on in China at that time.
i feel this film helps bring us all closer together and i have sent copies to my mother and friends because i think it is that good and well worth watching.
Description of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
Breath-taking, funny, erotic and altogether bewitching!" - ELLE MAGAZINE "A jewel of a movie!" - WASHINGTON POST "Sweet, funny, sad and profound!"- SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE "Exquisite! A love song to great literature."- LOS ANGELES TIMES Based on the best-selling novel set during China's cultural revolution, this acclaimed film is about two young men, university students, who are sent to a remote mountain village for a Maoist re-education, to purge them of their decadent Western education. Amid the back-breaking work and stifling ignorance of the community, the local beauties are the only respite from their miserable life. But none compare to the granddaughter of the region's tailor. With a secret cache of forbidden books, they set about to woo her.General DVDs
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