''Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl'' () is a 1998 Chinese

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

directed by

Joan Chen Joan Chen (simplified Chinese; 陈冲; born April 26, 1961) is an American actress and film director. She made her film debut in the Chinese film ''Youth'' (1977) before starring in the film (1979). She came to the attention of American audien ...

in her directorial debut, who co-wrote the screenplay with

Geling Yan Geling Yan (; born 16 November 1958) is a Chinese-American author and screenwriter. Early life Yan was born in Shanghai, China in 1958. She is the second child of Yan Dunxun and Jia Lin. She has an elder brother Yan Geping (严歌平). Her fath ...

. Based on Yan's 1981 short story "Celestial Bath", the film is set in the 1970s during the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a Social movement, sociopolitical movement in the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). It was launched by Mao Zedong in 1966 and lasted until his de ...

Down to the Countryside Movement The Up to the Mountains and Down to the Countryside Movement, often known simply as the Down to the Countryside Movement, was a policy instituted in the China, People's Republic of China between the mid-1950s and 1978. As a result of what he p ...

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. The film stars

Li Xiaolu Li Xiaolu (, born 30 September 1982), also known as Jacqueline Li, is a Chinese actress and singer. She is best known for her role in Joan Chen's directing debut '' Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl'' (1998), idol drama ''All the Misfortunes Caused ...

as the titular character, with Lopsang also starring. The film premiered at the

48th Berlin International Film Festival The 48th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from 11 to 22 February 1998. The festival opened with the Irish film ''The Boxer'' by Jim Sheridan. Francis Ford Coppola's '' The Rainmaker'' was selected as the closing night film. T ...

and collected top prizes from various film festivals. It was released in the United States on May 7, 1999.

Plot

Wenxiu, nicknamed Xiu Xiu, a 15-year-old girl living in the city of

Chengdu Chengdu; Sichuanese dialects, Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: ; Chinese postal romanization, previously Romanization of Chinese, romanized as Chengtu. is the capital city of the Chinese province of Sichuan. With a ...

, is sent out to study horses in the countryside with a nomadic

Tibetan Tibetan may mean: * of, from, or related to Tibet * Tibetan people, an ethnic group * Tibetan language: ** Classical Tibetan, the classical language used also as a contemporary written standard ** Standard Tibetan, the most widely used spoken dial ...

. She is told that after six months, she will return to take charge of her all-girl cavalry unit. Her only friend is the

eunuch A eunuch ( , ) is a male who has been castration, castrated. Throughout history, castration often served a specific social function. The earliest records for intentional castration to produce eunuchs are from the Sumerian city of Lagash in the 2 ...

horseman Lao Jin, who takes care of her while teaching her to herd horses. But after the six months are up, she quickly discovers that she is not allowed to return. As Xiu Xiu loses hope, she falls for the lies of a peddler who tells her he can get her out of the place, but does not return after having sex with her. Her innocence is slowly corrupted by a stream of men who use her only for sex, barely keeping up the conceit by telling her that they are able to get her back to her hometown. She starts to believe the lies the men perfunctorily tell her, as she spitefully lectures Lao Jin that the men who come in the night and have their way with her are important men who can help her get back. Xiu Xiu gets pregnant and goes for a traumatic abortion in the hospital. The female doctors gossip about her. After the operation, she is raped by one of the patients, a man who shot himself in the foot to get disability benefits in the state-controlled economy. Lao Jin gets angry and assaults the rapist, but is restrained by the other patients while the doctors make snide remarks about how Xiu Xiu enjoys being raped. After Xiu recuperates, she tries to shoot herself in the foot so she can get sent back home, but cannot bring herself to pull the trigger. She asks Lao Jin to shoot her foot, then changes her mind and asks him to shoot her dead instead. He does so, then shoots himself and falls on her body.

Cast

(credited as Lu Lu) as Wenxiu (), nicknamed Xiu Xiu () * Lopsang as Lao Jin () * Zheng Qian as Li Chuanbei * Ji Gao as Mother * Qianqian Lee as Sister * Yue Lü as Father

Production

The film was shot on location in

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...

over a period of six weeks with a crew of 60. Joan Chen said she would smuggle film out of China almost every day of the shoot for fear that Chinese authorities might confiscate all of it if they discovered what kind of film she was making. This prevented her from watching playbacks and led to a rushed shooting schedule.

Reception

Critical reception

On review aggregate website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, ''Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl'' has an approval rating of 96% based on 24 reviews. The site's critics consensus reads, "A superb first outing from debuting director Joan Chen, ''Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl'' uses one person's grueling ordeal to probe a dark chapter in Chinese history."

Andrew Sarris Andrew Sarris (October 31, 1928 – June 20, 2012) was an American film critic. He was a leading proponent of the auteur theory of film criticism. Early life Sarris was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Greek immigrant parents, Themis (née Kat ...

of ''

The New York Observer ''The New York Observer'' was a weekly newspaper established in 1987. In 2016, it ceased print publication and became the online-only newspaper ''Observer''. The media site focuses on culture, real estate, media, politics and the entertainment ...

'' called the film "the most devastatingly implacable indictment of Mao's Great Cultural Revolution as is possible to imagine."

Desson Howe Desson Patrick Thomson is a speechwriter, journalist and film critic. He was a speechwriter for the Obama administration and film critic for ''The Washington Post''. He was known as Desson Howe until 2003 when he changed his name after reunitin ...

of ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'' said the film's subject matter made for a difficult watch, but also commented the film is "nicely photographed, well directed and has two delicate lead performances from Lu Lu and Lopsang." Film critic

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...

praised the film's understated dialogue, particularly highlighting the relationship between Lao Jin and Xiu Xiu as one of shared isolation and quiet suffering, likening them to "two fellow prisoners who scarcely speak the same language."

Release

The film premiered at the

1998 Berlin International Film Festival The 48th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from 11 to 22 February 1998. The festival opened with the Irish film ''The Boxer (1997 film), The Boxer'' by Jim Sheridan. Francis Ford Coppola's ''The Rainmaker (1997 film), The Rainma ...

on February 19, 1998. In December 1998, the film won several awards at the

Golden Horse Film Festival The Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival and Taipei Golden Horse Awards () are a film festival and associated awards ceremony held annually in Taiwan. The festival and ceremony were founded in 1962 by the Government Information Office of the Republ ...

in Taiwan, prompting Taiwanese media to report that Chen had circumvented regulations by China's Film Bureau in order to shoot in Tibet. Chen was subsequently fined and briefly banned in China. Chen apologized to the Bureau and said she had initially applied for a film permit, but was given a mandate by officials to remove "sexual and pessimistic scenes from the film" in order to obtain the permit. When the film was released in the United States in May 1999, the film's marketing focused on ''Xiu Xiu''s sexual and political content as the primary reason for its ban in China.

Awards and nominations

;

Golden Horse Awards The Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival and Taipei Golden Horse Awards () are a film festival and associated awards ceremony held annually in Taiwan. The festival and ceremony were founded in 1962 by the Government Information Office of the Repub ...

* 1998: won for Best Film (Joan Chen) * 1998: won for Best Director (Joan Chen) * 1998: won for Best Screenplay Adapted from Another Medium (Joan Chen) * 1998: won for Best Actress (Li Xiaolu) * 1998: won for Best Actor (LupSang) ;

* 1998: nominated for the

Golden Bear The Golden Bear () is the highest prize awarded for the best film at the Berlin International Film Festival and is, along with the Palme d'Or and the Golden Lion, the most important international film festival award. The bear is the heraldic an ...

;

Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival Fort Lauderdale ( ) is a coastal city located in the U.S. state of Florida, north of Miami along the Atlantic Ocean. It is the county seat of and most populous city in Broward County with a population of 182,760 at the 2020 census, making it t ...

* 1998: won the Jury Award ;

Paris Film Festival Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

* 1999: won the Special Jury Prize * 1999: nominated for the Grand Prize * 1999: won Best Actress (Li Xiaolu) ;Mons International Festival of Love Films * 1999: won the Grand Prize ;

National Board of Review The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures is a non-profit organization of New York City area film enthusiasts. Its awards, which are announced in early December, are considered the first major harbinger of the film awards season that ...

* 1999: won the International Freedom Award ;

Independent Spirit Awards The Independent Spirit Awards, originally known as the FINDIE or Friends of Independents Awards, and later as the Film Independent Spirit Awards, are awards presented annually in Santa Monica, California, to independent filmmakers. Founded in ...

* 2000: nominated for Best First Feature Over $500,000 (Joan Chen, shared with co-producer Alice Chan Wai-Chung)

References

External links

* * * {{GoldenHorseAwardBestFilm 1990s feminist films 1990s Mandarin-language films 1998 directorial debut films 1998 films 1998 independent films Chinese drama films Films about abortion Films about rape Films about the Cultural Revolution Films directed by Joan Chen Films set in Chengdu Films set in the 1970s Films whose director won the Best Director Golden Horse Award Sent-down youths