Balzac and the little Chinese Seamstress (小裁縫)

[Guest pratyeka]

小裁缝 (had to edit to get that right.. damn GB crap ...)

Anyone seen it?

I saw it last night here in Sydney, thought it was fantastic. Particularly because I haven't had the opportunity to practice listening to Mandarin for so long, and because I started learning in Yunnan ... the Sichuan dialect in the film made me feel right back in the mountains!

Particularly touching was the closure to the film, which I wont spoil for those of you that haven't seen it. I had to laugh when a certain southern city was mentioned in conjunction with a phrase such as 'try your luck' or similar .. further elboration would perhaps spoil the plot for some of you, so I'm hoping that others can get the drift.

There are some great interviews with the actors, director and producer over here, too.

[roddy]

Got this at the weekend on DVD (splashed out and paid 15Y for a D9 - they've started selling D9's without boxes so cheaply that it makes the usual 7/8Y D5's less attractive). Will report back once I've watched it. Of course, that's going to have to wait till I've watched Charlies' Angels 2 . . .

Roddy

[skylee]

I am about to buy the DVD or VCD of this movie (xiao caifeng (小裁縫). The leading actress Zhou Xun is in a TV drama I am watching and I think she is pretty and has a very special voice.

[roddy]

Finally got round to watching this at the weekend. I really enjoyed it - interesting story-line, great scenery, some good laughs and also some moving moments. I'm not sure how seriously I could take it on a 'this is what it was really like' level - everyone was just a bit too photogenic, but I guess that's films for you.

As far as understanding the language went, it was pretty difficult - it's very much in Sichuanhua, and even the two young men sent to the village for re-education are difficult to understand, let alone the villagers themselves. My version only had the choice of French or Chinese subtitles, so I made do with the Chinese ones - I found myself relying on the subtitles much more than listening.

One thing I found myself thinking about after watching was the role of foreign culture in Chinese movies. Two that I've seen, this one and Chen Kaige's Together seem to use foreign culture of one form or another as a rope to pull the Chinese characters out of poverty - In Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress the foreign literature inspires the seamstress to head off and explore the world, while in Together Xiao Chun's talent gives him the chance to move to Beijing and start wearing tuxedos and playing Mozart at the Poly Plaza.

I suppose this may in some way make the films more accessible to western audiences.

Roddy

[niubi]

i read the novel before watching the film and inevitably enjoyed the reading more.

[pazu]

Seems like I'm a bit outdated, I've just watched this movie yesterday.

It's so far one of the best mainland movies I've seen. I love the story line and the subtle love of Liu Ye 劉燁 (Ma Jianling, the violinist) towards Zhou Xun, it was quite touching that he sold his violin and gave Y20 to the Little Seamstress (LS) after her abortion surgery.

LS asked, "Oh you sold it for Y20?" It's interesting that the LS thought Ma Jianling would give all the money to her. Ma Jianling then said, "I sold it for Y25 indeed, I keep Y5 for myself..."

The three leading actors/actress have done well in the movie.

It seems to me a little bit far-fetched to use Balzac's novels to lead the Little Seamstress to the outside world, but I still like this idea, it reminded me of a song by 阿牛 (陳慶祥), it's 阿牛和阿花的故事 (the story of A Niu and A Hua), the song is about a story of 阿牛's little lover 阿花, who wanted to go exploring the world outside. 阿花告訴那阿牛說, 她要到那遙遠的地方, 去尋找她的理想, 她的夢, 她不一樣的日子; 她要到遠方, 去生活。 // (阿花告诉那阿牛说, 她要到那遥远的地方, 去寻找她的理想, 她的梦, 她不一样的日子; 她要到远方, 去生活。)

Another appealing scene to me was the force of their memory, after 20 years Ma Jianling went back to 鳳凰山, he couldn't find the LS anymore, he did meet some of his old buddies, including the 隊長 (group leader), their lives had not been changed much, same house, same rice, but because of the Sanxia Dam, they had to move. The water buried not only the villages but also the memory of Ma and Luo.

When my kindergarten closed down a few years ago (in Hong Kong), I felt quite sad too, I never went back there (because I was too small when I was there), but there was some mysterious connection that made me sad when I knew it didn't exist anymore.

[skylee]

昨天晚上終於看了 ... 很好看!!!

[trevelyan]

>> The water buried not only the villages but also the memory of Ma and Luo. <<

Great movie with great cinematography. I also thought this was one of the really touching parts of the film.