Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress

Friday night, we watched "Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress". It is a quiet, engaging and beautiful film. The movie is written and directed by Dai Sijie. It is based on his own experiences during the Chinese Cultural Revolution in the early 70's. Sijie has since moved to France and wrote the book that the movie is based on. Sijie was given permission to make the film in China. Chinese censors asked for changes to the book and the film. As a result, the book is not available in Chinese, however some minor modifications were made to the movie. The movie is in Chinese with English subtitles.


Two young men are sent to a tiny mountain village for "re-education". Because they are sons of "reactionary intellectuals", they have been sent away to perform long arduous hours of manual labor. The idea is to teach the youths the wisdom of living and working collectively. The two young men do their best to fit in, but never quite do so. Viewing this movie just 30 years after the events occurred, one is struck by how primitive the conditions were in rural China. One marvels at the strides that China is trying to make (and has already had made) to take its place alongside other developed nations.



Xun Zhou plays the little seamstress. She plays a character, that is part shy and nervous around the more worldly young men, that is part seeking adventure and inquisitive about the world outside their secluded region and part wise to the ways of rural living. The movie is as much about her transformation as the struggles of the young men.

The movie shows beautiful landscapes of the remote mountainous rural region. Although it must have been tough for the young men to be sent to this area, there is very little bitterness present in the film. The movie recognizes the hardships of the life, but has sentimental overtones. The young men take a "make the best of it" attitude towards their situation. It is a sweet, touching and gentle story that my wife and I both enjoyed.