Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress Image
Metascore
65 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 22 Critics What's this?

User Score
7.3 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 9 Ratings

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  • Starring: Kun Chen, Xun Zhou, Ye Liu
  • Summary: Based on the international best-seller, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress is set in the early 1970's during the later stages of China's "Cultural Revolution," as two city-bred teenage best friends, Luo (Kun Chen) and Ma (Ye Liu), are sent to a backward mountainous region for Maoist re-education. (Empire Pictures)… Expand

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 15 out of 22
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 22
  3. Negative: 0 out of 22
  1. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Jonathan Curiel
    100
    Sweet, funny, sad and profound -- the sort of film that becomes more remarkable when you realize it's based on someone's real life.
  2. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Desson Thomson
    80
    If the movie is straightforward and predictable in its attitude, it also exudes a sort of documentary lyricism.
  3. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Carina Chocano
    80
    For an exquisitely melancholy story steeped in a sense of the past as a succession of great waves of political, ideological and economic change, it's fitting that the movie should end with an underwater sequence. It looks like a dream of a memory of a place about to be wiped out by the next great flood of history.
  4. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Teresa Wiltz
    60
    Sure, Balzac meanders at too leisurely a pace. But the actors are charming; the story sweet

See all 22 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 6
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 6
  3. Negative: 1 out of 6
  1. MyronM.
    10
    Beautiful story, beautiful scenery, beautiful girls, what more could an old guy want. Makes me want to visit China.
  2. JulienK.
    9
    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 époque to another. I can feel ethereal touch of Author's filial love to his mother country china. It is easy to see that the Author was torn between his deep seated love for China and Ambition of 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 fiancé along with almost all things I perceived exquisite at that time for an ambitious cause. Augmented by an outstanding soundtracks with his genius touch in a perfect synchronisation with emotion portrayed in screenplay. Since I have played harpsichord continuo part for Haendel's tragic opera such as Alcina, Otone and Radamisto for student soprano singersduring reharsals in the past, I can readily feel Author's masterful quality of refined artistic mind in every scene. This is a second film that I bought for my collection of Dai Sijie's works. I must admit that he is a genius of screenplay depicting moments of painful separation. Who else can reproduce so vividly on the screen with such poetic toutch today? Julien Kujo, Palo Alto, California.… Expand
  3. ChadS.
    7
    Rather than just watch two boys read from Balzac's "Cousin Bette", a more interesting strategy might've been to show us how two Chinese provincials would visualize period piece-France. We never really get a sense that these boys were transformed by an infusion of otherworldly words. With the tailor, we do. The way literature inspires him is when the film truly comes alive. For Luo (Kun Chen) and Ma (Ye Liu), we're absolutely sure that they love the Little Chinese Seamstress (Xun Chou), but as for Balzac, because the filmmaker inadequately shows us their passion for literature, they come off as poseurs who use the books as a tool of seduction. In the Dai Siije novel, you don't think about "Jules and Jim" in the sticks.… Expand
  4. nashville13
    0
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This movie is TERRIBLE and GULLIBLE. Just Fit for Crazy person!!! Communism, Communism, Communism!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!… Expand

See all 6 User Reviews

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