''Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress'' (; french: Balzac et la Petite Tailleuse Chinoise) is a 2002 Franco-Chinese romance drama film with dialogue in the Sichuan dialect directed by

Dai Sijie Dai Sijie (born 1954) is a Chinese French author and filmmaker. Early life Dai was born in Putian, Fujian, in 1954. His parents, Professor Dai Baoming and Professor Hu Xiaosu, were professors of medical sciences at West China University ...

and starring Zhou Xun,

Chen Kun Chen Kun (; born February 4, 1976), sometimes credited as Aloys Chen, is a Chinese actor and singer. He gained recognition from television dramas ''Love Story in Shanghai'' and ''The Story of a Noble Family'' and rose to international prominence wi ...

and Liu Ye. It premiered at the

2002 Cannes Film Festival The 55th Cannes Film Festival started on 15 May and ran until 26 May 2002. The Palme d'Or went to the Polish-French-German-British co-produced film '' The Pianist'' directed by Roman Polanski. The festival opened with '' Hollywood Ending'', direct ...

on 16 May. Based on the 2000 semi-autobiographical novel of the same title by Dai, the film revolves around two young Chinese boys of

bourgeois The bourgeoisie ( , ) is a social class, equivalent to the middle or upper middle class. They are distinguished from, and traditionally contrasted with, the proletariat by their affluence, and their great cultural and financial capital. ...

background who were sent to a remote village in

Sichuan province Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of the ...

for three years of re-education during the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goa ...

. They both fell in love with a beautiful local girl, granddaughter of an old tailor and known to everyone as the Little Seamstress. During those years of intellectual oppression, the three found solace and liberation in a collection of banned translated novels by Western authors, among whom their favourite was Balzac. The film explores the themes of youth, love, and freedom in those dark times in China.

Plot

The film is set in a period between 1971 and 1974, during the later stage of the

Chinese Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goal ...

. Two city boys in their late teenage years, Luo Min (played by

) and Ma Jianling ( Liu Ye), are on their way to a remote village in the mountainous

for re-education. Upon arrival, the boys are questioned on their "reactionary backgrounds" by the Chief (

Wang Shuangbao Wang may refer to: Names * Wang (surname) (王), a common Chinese surname * Wāng (汪), a less common Chinese surname * Titles in Chinese nobility * A title in Korean nobility * A title in Mongolian nobility Places * Wang River in Thailand ...

), the village leader, in the presence of the other villagers. Luo's father turns out to be a dentist who had once fitted a false tooth for Chiang Kai-shek, while Ma's father is a doctor. The Chief also examines the boys' luggage and burns a cookbook, which he claims to be bourgeois. He is about to throw Ma's violin into the fire as well before he is stopped by Luo, who lies that the Mozart's ''Divertimento KV 334'' Ma plays is a "mountain song" titled ''Mozart is Thinking of Chairman Mao''. The two boys are allocated a house and immediately join in the labours of the locals, which include transporting buckets of human waste used for fertilizer as well as working in the coal mine. One day, a young girl, granddaughter of a tailor from the neighbouring village and known to everyone as the Little Seamstress ( Zhou Xun), comes by with her grandfather to listen to Ma play violin. Luo and Ma befriend the Little Seamstress and soon both fall in love with her. The girl, illiterate but hungry for knowledge, and the boys, vowing to transform her, devise a plan to steal a suitcase filled with banned translated Western novels from Four-Eyes ( Wang Hongwei), another boy undergoing re-education in the village but bound to return to the city. Luo begins to read to the Little Seamstress every day, books including those by Stendhal,

Kipling Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British Raj, British India, which inspired much o ...

and Dostoevsky. But her favourite turns out to be Balzac. The Little Seamstress soon falls in love with Luo. One day, as Luo is departing for the city on a two-month leave to visit his sick father, she tells him that she has a problem but does not elaborate. She later confides to Ma that she is pregnant, but population-curbing laws forbid marriage before 25 and abortion is illegal without a marriage certificate. Ma travels to the city to find a gynecologist who knows his father and begs the latter for help. The gynecologist is moved and agrees to travel to the village to perform a secret abortion. Upon Luo's return, life resumes as before. One day, however, the Little Seamstress, now completely changed by the new ideas Luo and Ma have introduced her to, abruptly decides to leave the village to seek out "a new life," despite pleas from her grandfather and Luo. Later, in 1974, Luo and Ma both return to the city as well. Luo later becomes a professor in a dental institute in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...

, while Ma moves to

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

and becomes a professional violinist. In the late 1990s, when he sees on the news that the construction of the

Three Gorges Dam The Three Gorges Dam is a hydroelectric gravity dam that spans the Yangtze River by the town of Sandouping, in Yiling District, Yichang, Hubei province, central China, downstream of the Three Gorges. The Three Gorges Dam has been the world' ...

will soon flood the village he spent three years in, Ma travels back in the hope of finding the Little Seamstress again. However, his efforts are futile and he brings back only a video recording of the village and the people, including the now aged Chief. As Ma meets up with his old friend Luo in Shanghai, the latter confesses an earlier failed attempt to search for the Little Seamstress in

Shenzhen Shenzhen (; ; ; ), also historically known as Sham Chun, is a major sub-provincial city and one of the special economic zones of China. The city is located on the east bank of the Pearl River estuary on the central coast of southern province ...

and

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

. The film ends with a news clip of the flooded towns and villages and a scene of the three, back to their youth years, also submerged in water.

Cast

* Zhou Xun as Little Seamstress, a beautiful and illiterate village girl, granddaughter of a tailor * Liu Ye as Ma Jianling, a city boy of bourgeois background sent to a remote village for re-education during the

as Luo Min, boy in the same situation as Ma, close friend of Ma and lover of the Little Seamstress *

as Chief, leader of the village * Wang Hongwei as Four-Eyes, a boy in similar situation as Ma and Luo who appears to embrace Mao's teachings wholeheartedly

Awards and nominations

Golden Globes The Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association beginning in January 1944, recognizing excellence in both American and international film and television. Beginning in 2022, there are 105 members of ...

, 2003 ** Best Foreign Language Film (nominated) *

Istanbul International Film Festival The Istanbul Film Festival ( tr, İstanbul Film Festivali) is the first and oldest international film festival in Turkey, organised by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts. It is held every year in April in movie theaters in Istanbul, Tu ...

, 2003 ** Golden Tulip (nominated) *

Golden Horse Film Festival The Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival and Awards () is a film festival and awards ceremony held annually in Taiwan. It was founded in 1962 by the Government Information Office of the Republic of China (ROC) in Taiwan. The awards ceremony is us ...

, 2003 ** Best Screenplay Adaptation (nominated) *

Hong Kong Film Awards The Hong Kong Film Awards (HKFA; ), founded in 1982, is an annual film awards ceremony in Hong Kong. The ceremonies are typically in April. The awards recognise achievement in various aspects of filmmaking, such as directing, screenwriting, ...

, 2004 ** Best Asian Film (nominated)

DVD release

''Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress'' was released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

on 29 November 2005 in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

and distributed by

Empire Pictures Empire International Pictures (aka Empire Entertainment) was an American small-scale theatrical distribution company. Charles Band formed Empire in 1983, prompted by his dissatisfaction with distributors' handling of films made by his previous b ...

References

;Additional sources * ;Further reading Bloom, Michelle E. Contemporary Franco-Chinese Cinema: Translation, Citation and Imitation in Dai Sijie's ''Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress'' and Tsai Ming-Liang's ''What Time Is It There?'' ''Quarterly Review of Film and Video'', 2005 Oct-Dec; 22 (4): 311–25. Chevaillier, Flore. "Commercialization and Cultural Misreading in Dai Sijie's ''Balzac et la Petite Tailleuse chinoise''.''Forum for Modern Language Studies''; Jan2011, Vol. 47 Issue 1, pp. 60–74.

External links