Starring Ye Liu, Kun Chen. Written by Dai Sijie, Nadine Perront based on
the novel by Dai Sijie. Directed by Dai Sijie. (AA) 112 min. Opens Feb 28.
The son of two doctors, minor Chinese film director Dai Sijie joined the throng
of intellectual teenagers who were sent to the country for re-education during
the Chinese Cultural Revolution. From 1971-74, Dai worked in a village in Sichuan
Province before immigrating to France. He hit pop culture pay dirt when he wrote
a slim novel based on his experiences.
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress became a bestseller and
the filmmaker-turned-author returned to filmmaking to adapt his novel.
He's made a pleasant enough film, and engineered a huge change, tacking
on a new ending for the film, which will probably upset fans of the
book.
Ma (Ye Liu) and Luo (Kun Chen) are two sons of doctors sent to the
mountains of Sichuan Province. When they are put to work in a mine,
only the company of the plucky Little Chinese Seamstress (Xun Zhou)
gives their lives meaning. But then the boys steal a suitcase full of
banned books -- the translated works of Balzac, Dostoevsky and other
Western writers -- and through literature, Ma and Luo escape their
dreary lives.
The film is a series of entertaining episodes in which Luo and
Ma pull the wool over the eyes of the villagers. Dai has made a
decidedly apolitical film, as the boys' traumatic re-education is more
like a stay at a rough-and-tumble summer camp, and the Little Chinese
Seamstress is their summer love.
The film's gorgeous locations and Jean-Marie Dreujou's cinematography save
the film, which would have otherwise become the Chinese version of
Little
Darlings.