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A Chinese Movie: Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress 巴尔扎克与小裁缝,
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress 巴尔扎克与小裁缝, a 2002 Chinese film is quite an interesting watch. Shot in the Sichuan dialect, the film which had been nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film in the 2003 Golden Globes stars some of China's top stars. The film probably reminds of Professor Henry Higgins and Eliza Doolittle of My Fair Lady but this isn't a light musical but more of a serious coming of age movie. Chen Kun and Liu Ye played two teenagers who have been sent to a remote village in Sichuan province for three years of re-education during the Cultural Revolution. There, they meet and fall in love with the village belle, the Little Seamstress played by Zhou Xun; and together, they transform the illiterate peasant girl. Unlike Professor Henry Higgins who teaches Eliza Doolittle proper English and manners, the boys read to her banned translated novels by Western authors which include Stendhal, Kipling, Dostoevsky and of course, Balzac. So, Balzac isn't a character in the story like the title suggests but a real French author whose work influences the illiterate girl; probably more than the boys could bargain for. Nice watch on a quiet afternoon!
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