Film Reviews

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress

• Rating:
• Director: Sijie Dai.
• Starring: Xun Zhou, Kun Chen, Ye Liu, Shuangbao Wang, Zhijun Cong, Hong Wei Wang.
• Details: Fra and Ch / 116 mins / (No Cert).

A slow burning but deeply melodic movie, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress is based on the largely autobiographical novel by Sijie Dai and is helmed by the author himself. In terms of narrative, the film focuses on two troublesome boys, Ma (Ye Lui) and Luo (Kun Chen), who are popped off to a Maoist camp to be re-educated. Understandably, neither chap is entirely enamoured with this development and nothing can prepare them for the weight of suspicion that surrounds their every move from the camp's paranoid powers that be. However, things take a bit of a turn when the pair discover a stash of literature and gorge themselves on it. Having turned the granddaughter of the village's tailor on to the delights of uncensored arts, this Chinese Seamstress finds herself intoxicated by the words of the likes of Balzac, and begins to question the fundamentals of a society that refuses to acknowledge the existence of such beauty. Although the central tenant of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress - art, like love, is worth sacrificing everything for - is a second-hand one, Dai Sijie's gentle, rolling film compensates with its bewitching central performances and the elegant atmosphere evoked by the director. Worth a peek.

Review by Garreth Murphy