Filmmaker Dai Sijie (
He first went to France to learn film making in the 1980s and made three pictures in nine years, struggling all the time to finance them. Which is why he then became an author, writing in French about his boyhood memories in China.
PHOTO: GROUP POWER
The novel was a best-seller, bringing him fame and enough funds to make another film. So, he returned to filmmaking with an adaptation of his own novel.
The result is as pleasing as the book. Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress was the opening film of the Un Certain Regard section at last year's Cannes Film Festival. Earlier this year, the film also represented France for Best Foreign Language film at the Golden Globe Awards.
Apt acting and elegant camera work transforms China's natural landscape into a story replete with touching episodes about the experience of two boys in the Cultural Revolution.
Unlike many films set during the Cultural Revolution, which mostly stress pain, trauma and distorted human minds, Balzac takes a different approach. Dai describes the re-education process almost as if it were a sweet memory, despite the hard labor that government doctrines forced him to undergo.
Luo Ming (Chen Kun,
Later, however, their dull and dirty lives are transformed when they meet the Little Seamstress (Zhou Xun,
"I want to change her from an earthy village girl to a sophisticated woman," Luo Ming says. The two of them begin to teach her how to read and introduce her to literature.
The two young men are lousy mine workers but excellent story-tellers. In order to keep his violin (originally perceived to be a bourgeois toy and best thrown away by the village chief), Ma plays a Mozart sonata and convinces the villagers the piece is called "Mozart is always thinking of Chairman Mao."
The pair are asked by the villagers to tell stories about the latest movies shown in town (North Korean and Albanian films only, China's best friends in the 1970s). But instead of repeating tedious propaganda, they suprise with an Alexander Dumas story, "Once upon a time in Albania, there was a man called, the Count of Monte Christo ?."
Then, Luo and Ma steal a case of banned books, including "subversive" novels by Honore de Balzac, Flaubert, Dostoevsky and Gogol. They even find a secret cave where they can read to the Little Seamstress.
It does not take long for a love affair to start, framed by idyllic pastoral scenes of stunning green hills, bubbling streams and romantic caves.
The Little Seamstress may have a simple peasant accent, but she proves bright enough to play at a love triangle involving the two young men masterfully.
Through Balzac, the three discover their passions, ideals and dreams for life. As a result the Little Seamstress decides to get away from a rustic life and a summer of love to go to the city.
Zhou Xun once again shows off her command of the fairy-like, pretty-little-girl role, reprises from Hong Kong Hollywood and Suzhou River. But somehow she's not convincing as a simple village girl.
Liu Ye plays a quieter and more reserved character than he portrayed in Lan Yu. New actor on the block, Chen Kun, is convincing as the confident and out-going character, Luo Ming.
The film has some pretentious and exaggerated parts, but also some touching moments. It is more a nostalgic story about youth than a profound story about the Cultural Revolution and its affect on human minds. But these drawbacks should not prevent you from enjoying a warm and engaging tale.
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