Synopsis
During the Cultural Revolution, two young men are sent to a remote mining village where they fall in love with the local tailor's beautiful granddaughter and discover a suitcase full of forbidden Western novels.
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Cast
- Zhou XunLittle Seamstress
- Chen KunLuo Min
- Liu YeMa Jianling
- Wang ShuangbaoHead of the Village
- Cong ZhijunOld Tailor
- Wang HongweiFour Eyes
- Xiao XiongMother of Four Eyes
- Zuohui TangOld Mill Worker
- Tianyu ChenDirector of the Commune
- Qing-yun FanDoctor
Recommendations
- 80
Washington Post
If the movie is straightforward and predictable in its attitude, it also exudes a sort of documentary lyricism. - 75
New York Post
A meditation on literature, love and remembrance that is able to find humor and hope in the dark days of the Cultural Revolution. - 75
New York Daily News
It's a fanciful tale, but the message is sweet - that the higher arts speak a universal language that transcends politics and ignorance. - 70
Variety
A visually lush and very Westernized vision of life in a remote Chinese village in the early 1970s. - 70
Village Voice
Though the film lacks some of the paper incarnation's subtlety, Dai's infidelity to his own text keeps things interesting. He busts the book's brief time frame, tweaks countless plot points, and tops it all off with a titanic metaphor not found in his own pages. - 70
The New York Times
Dai Sijie's tender, touching adaptation of his own novel of the same title. - 50
Chicago Reader
The ethereal private moments and inspired passages are beautifully shot by Jean-Marie Dreujou, but Dai never quite organizes the material dramatically, and the tone is too often jagged and disruptive. - 50
The A.V. Club
Sijie mostly adapts his own work dryly and literally—the footage of the Chinese mountainside is breathtaking, but it's the only thing in the film with much depth.
