Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (film)

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Dai Sijie
Written by	Dai Sijie Nadine Perront Dai Sijie (novel)
Produced by	Lise Fayolle
Starring	Zhou Xun Liu Ye Chen Kun
Cinematography	Jean-Marie Dreujou
Music by	Wang Pujian
Distributed by	Empire Pictures (United States)
Release date	16 May 2002 (2002-05-16) (France)
Running time	111 minutes
Countries	China France
Language	Mandarin

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (simplified Chinese: 巴尔扎克与小裁缝; traditional Chinese: 巴爾扎克與小裁縫; French: Balzac et la Petite Tailleuse Chinoise) is a 2002 Franco-Chinese romance drama film with dialogue in the Sichuan dialect directed by Dai Sijie and starring Zhou Xun, Chen Kun and Liu Ye. It premiered at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival on 16 May.^[1]

Based on the 2000 semi-autobiographical novel of the same title by Dai, the film revolves around two young Chinese boys of bourgeois background who were sent to a remote village in Sichuan province for three years of re-education during the Cultural Revolution. They both fell in love with a beautiful local girl, granddaughter of an old tailor and known to everyone as the Little Seamstress. During those years of intellectual oppression, the three found solace and liberation in a collection of banned translated novels by Western authors, among whom their favourite was Balzac. The film explores the themes of youth, love, and freedom in those dark times in China.