Nayan Gough
A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.
Roman Sampson
One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.
Mandeep Tyson
The acting in this movie is really good.
zachgeorgenick
While I saw the movie, I also read the book. I have learned that this is an extremely bad idea because the movie does not follow the nook closely. It is apparent that the director, Sijie Dai, depicted the novel differently. The movie shows how life for Luo and Ma became an adventure for them since they are going to be "re-educated" as a policy that China's Communist leader wanted to implement. The theme of the movie was to show that memories from a new place will scar the person. The movie failed to depict closely to the book.Luo and ma was sent to work in the Pheonix Mountains during the Cultural Revolution in China. While they worked there as a part of their "re-education", Luo and aMa finds out about love and more about a world they never knew. Through contraband's, such as books, they motivated themselves to stay and work in the Pheonix Mountians. At the end, the memories that Luo and Ma both experienced were kept close to their heart.
walshthgrade
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Sijie DaiThe film was a very affectionate story right in between important events and right at the very end where it showed an important past of Luo(Kun Chen), Ma(Ye Liu), and The little seamstress(Xun Zhou) in the shed where they were re-educated and where Luo and Ma first feel in love with the Little Seamstress. I always thought that something would happen between Ma(Ye Liu) and Luo(Kun Chen) over the Little Seamstress(Xun Zhou) because Ma was always down about seeing Luo with The Seamstress, and i thought his jealousy would get in the way later on."Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress" is a passionate film that idealizes two guys who are in love with one girl and shows how determined the two guys were in trying to change the girl. However the film lacks a more passionate ending like Luo should have tried to get Ma and try to look for the Little Seamstress even though she went so far, then i thought they would meet up in the end when they were older.In the Story the Little Chinese Seamstress, Luo and Ma are two re-educated guys that both fall in love with a girl named the Little Chinese Seamstress. Luo and Ma both try to find a way to reform the Little Seamstress by using forbidden books. Luo falls in love with the Seamstress and Ma tries to not fall in love with the Little Seamstress for Luo. One element of the film i liked is how Ye Liu takes out his violin and plays Mozart. Ye Liu showed a very good additional theme to the story by playing a song with such a soft melody symbolizing harmony and peace. It somewhat showed how Ye Liu's character is and how it might shape him in the future in the film as Ma. One element of the film i really didn't like was when Kun Chen's character Luo wanted to change the Little Seamstress so that she would match up to him. Luo was a bit selfish but when it happened Luo fell in love with her anyways.The film was directed by Sijie Dai, who used the books and Concepts of Balzac, who is an author and introduces the New form of the Little Seamstress as time went by. Each one of the books that were read to the Little Seamstress by Ma and Luo gave the Little Seamstress that certain reason to leave and find something new in the city. The characters find themselves in that certain place, the place in memory where it all began, in that certain shed, where they had discovered one thing in particular, Balzac.Review by :geoffrey c. 5/13/07
Hunky Stud
overall, this is a good movie. the scenery is very nice to look at, so out of this world. I found two mistakes. 1. both them speak with dialects. Then when one of the guy were talking to a local folksong singer, all of sudden, he started to talk in perfect mandarin which doesn't make sense. 2. At the end of the movie, the guy actually jumped into the water, and searched for the dead person's name among all those paper boats which seem to be fake. He could have just asked people about it.The markup artists are great. They were able to change those two young men into middle age men without any obvious fake decorations.I didn't think that it was necessary for those two characters to speak heavy dialects at all. If they are from the city, they should know how to speak the national language - Mandarin. It is so hard to understand those people, I had to read the English subtitles. I also like the ending which seems like a copy from Titanic. It was well done.That period of time was a tragic time. This movie could have a little more tear jerking moment, etc. It doesn't have any. And it also did not show us any dark side of the communist party, the craziness people get into.
bradleyelfman
I was really moved by the portrayal of the friendship of the Little Seamstress, Ma, and Luo, and how their lives were changed by their experience in the mountains in this brief span of time. The mountains were beautiful, the re-educators were not presented as monsters, and the acting, esp Xun Zho as Little Seamstress and Ye Liu as Ma was really good. Xun Zho reminded me of the young Gong Li in Red Sorghum. Most importantly, I rediscovered how lucky I am to be able to read and watch what I want when I want, and how I am almost obligated to take advantage of my freedom to read and watch movies.For me, the filming was never as strong as the better Asian movies but once the movie got going the filming became stronger as did the movie.The character of the harshness of the cultural revolution in China in the 60's was shown thru a politically soft-focus lens, but I did not mind this as there are more than enough Chinese movies that have leaned in the other direction, and for me, this was a movie about friendship and love in a political and cultural setting, not the other way around which matches my own personal preferences.
