This semi-autobiographical love story, written and directed by Sijii Dai, recounts the story of two bourgeoise teenaged boys - Luo (Kun Chen) and Ma (the oh-so-handsome Ye Lui) - sent to the country for reeducation during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. There, amid mountains and peasants, they eke out a tough living, constantly having to justify their upbringing, finding new ways to amuse themselves, and spending long days doing heavy labour. When they spy on girls from a neighbouring village bathing in a waterfall, Luo is instantly in love with the granddaughter of the village tailor, dubbed 'the little chinese seamstress' (Xun Zhou). Stealing a stash of foreign books, he and Ma begin reading to her each day in hopes of both educating her and wooing her. It works and soon, our Chinese seamstress is pregnant just as Luo is granted a two month leave of absence to care for his ailing father in the city. Set among the mountains later flooded to make way for the Three Gorges Dam, Xiao cai feng is a beautiful, romantic, comic treatise on the power of music and literature to change people, and the reality that we are creatures of our upbringing, reeducation or not. With a sad yet moving coda, and despite its blatant political bent, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress is one not to miss.
My rating 8 out of 10.
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