Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress

Name: Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
Director: Sijie Dai
Genre: Biography, Drama, Comedy, Romance
Released: July 29, 2005
Duration: 110 min
Rating: 65
Cast: Kun Chen, Xun Zhou, Ye Liu

2005

METASCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 22 Critics

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 12 Ratings

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6.6

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6.6	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 12 Ratings

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Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress

Movie Details & Credits

Empire Pictures | Release Date: July 29, 2005

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)

Director: Sijie Dai

Genre(s): Biography, Drama, Comedy, Romance

Runtime: 110 min

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Awards & Rankings

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Metascore

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Critic Reviews

100

San Francisco Chronicle - Jonathan Curiel

Sweet, funny, sad and profound -- the sort of film that becomes more remarkable when you realize it's based on someone's real life. Read full review

Philadelphia Inquirer - Steven Rea

A funny, sad and absolutely lovely film. Read full review

Los Angeles Times - Carina Chocano

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. Read full review

L.A. Weekly - Ella Taylor

By turns merry, tough-minded and sweetly nostalgic. Read full review

Village Voice - Ed Park

Though the film lacks some of the paper incarnation's subtlety, Dai's infidelity to his own text keeps things interesting. He busts the book's brief time frame, tweaks countless plot points, and tops it all off with a titanic metaphor not found in his own pages. Read full review

Washington Post - Teresa Wiltz

Sure, Balzac meanders at too leisurely a pace. But the actors are charming; the story sweet Read full review

TV Guide Magazine - Ken Fox

Demonstrating just how different literature and filmmaking can be, filmmaker-turned-writer-turned filmmaker Dai Sijie botches an adaptation of his own best-selling short novel. Read full review

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User Reviews

cinequnon

Oct 21, 2017

Based on the book by the same name and author who wrote and direct the film, this realistic, charming and passionate memoir shows what is lost and gained in the passing of traditions and exposure to sophisticated ideas of literature.

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MyronM.

Sep 19, 2005

Beautiful story, beautiful scenery, beautiful girls, what more could an old guy want. Makes me want to visit China.

0 of 1 users found this helpful

RichardF.

Aug 31, 2005

Powerful setting, both emotionally and physically . . . charming cast . . . familiar truth (cf. Educating Rita, e.g.): art can change a person utterly, and not always without cost.

0 of 1 users found this helpful

JulienK.

Jul 15, 2009

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 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

0 of 1 users found this helpful

ChadS.

May 14, 2006

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 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.… Collapse

0 of 1 users found this helpful

nashville13

Nov 2, 2011

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This movie is TERRIBLE and GULLIBLE. Just Fit for Crazy person!!! Communism, Communism, Communism!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

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