Wwmbrd Set during the Cultural Revolution in Maoist China (late 1960s-early 70s), Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress follows a pair of young men, Luo and Ma, who have been sent from their homes in the city to the rural mountains in central China for the process of "re- education"- a Maoist program known as the "Down to the Countryside" movement. In short, the idea behind this was for the richer urban youth to "see how the other half lives", which instead served as a sort of exile of youth and their potentially revolutionary ideas: send them away, and they won't be a problem anymore. In what would later be recognized as one of the most culturally destructive events in Chinese history, ironically cast as being to remove "revisionists" (those who supported capitalistic ideas and western culture), the years of Mao's Cultural Revolution set the Chinese economy, social structure, education, and politics back irreparably.The story revolves around these two teens and their interactions with the local peasant villagers- but particularly the beautiful granddaughter of the village's tailor. Illiterate, but with an open mind and desire to learn, the Little Seamstress beseeches Luo and Ma to teach her how to read and write, and they see her as a chance to use their "revolutionary ideas" and "corrupt" (redeem) even just one soul from the poisonous teachings of Mao. Of course, at this time, any kind of print material, television, film, or anything of cultural relevance that was deemed "revisionist" or "revolutionary" was strictly prohibited, and subject to confiscation and destruction- not to mention punishable by prison or worse for the offender found in possession of such contraband. Toeing the line, Luo and Ma seek out western books written purely for the pleasure of reading, such as Balzac's Ursule Mirouet and Alexander Dumas' Count of Monte Cristo, with which to teach the Little Seamstress to read, and at the same time to think for herself- a true re-education.Luo and Ma grapple with their circumstances- being pushed into backbreaking labor mining and farming with the penniless villagers and their ignorance of the ways of modern medicine and thought. It's almost as if the people there were frightened to think- afraid of outside knowledge that might threaten their simple, but difficult existence on the mountain, and readily accepted the Maoist ideas that Luo and Ma were seeing right through. The culture of fear instilled in them by the government pervaded their thoughts to the point of near paranoia- the scene where the village chief nearly dies in a cave in attempting to save a portrait of Chairman Mao is the pinnacle of this irrational, fierce obsession. Another scene that really highlit a sense of desperation and tragedy in the movie was how the contraband western authors' books were used as a form of currency, in a sense. Something as simple as literature and knowledge were so dear to Luo and Ma, as an escape from their rough living conditions. Yet another scene that really spoke to me was when Ma contracted (what they thought was) malaria. Being that Luo and Ma were children of a dentist and doctor, respectively, they understood that with medicine and actual treatment that malaria was very curable- but Ma was subjected to all manner of primitive, ignorant, tribalistic medicine- like whipping and being thrown into the lake, and accepted it because he knew there was no way he'd be allowed to leave to seek proper treatment in a city.

crossbow0106 This story is about a group of people during Chairman Mao's regime who are re-educated, a movement in which young people from the city were shipped off to rural areas of China to work on farms & mines. The work is hard and dirty. The two young men Luo and Ma become acquainted with the local girls, especially the Little Seamstress (her actual name is not given), who lives with her grandfather. They befriend her and oner of them falls in love with her and why not, she's very pretty and sweet. The two young men steal foreign books from someone named "Four Eyes" and they try to teach the little seamstress to read. The grandfather fears this will change her forever and doesn't want it. The film is gripping throughout, the story is very good and probably true to life. The acting is uniformly good, the cinematography is good and the atmospheric aura around this film is compelling. I found this film very watchable and if you're interested in the theme I definitely recommend it. It held my interest throughout.

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.

michel-crolais In China, in times of Mao Tse Tung cultural revolution, two young university students, Luo and Ma are sent in a retired mountain village to be rehabilitated et purged of their old western education. They are placed under the control of a communist little chief without any background and they had to work hardly as peasants. But they have contact with beautiful young women and especially with a young granddaughter of the local village tailor. A love story rapidly develops between Luo and the young seamstress at the same time they read together forbidden books such as works of Honore de Balzac that they have stolen to another student under Maoist rehabilitation. They also enjoyed themselves with classical occidental music such as Mozart and they teach the little illiterate seamstress, improving their lives. The movie is full of fresh feelings and gives us a very good relation of what has been this dramatic period for Chinese population. The landscape where the movie was realized is also particularly beautiful. It's a very great movie, very well acted.