When plucked out of your life into somewhere new, it can be a good change... Depending on where you’re going. For two city boys moving to labor on rural farmlands, it probably would have been a terrible one if it wasn’t for Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress. Balzac is one of the many Western authors whose books they aren’t allowed to read, and the Little Seamstress is a beautiful girl that they befriend through said books, so it’s an interesting take on a young adult, coming-of-age romance, as the books they read end up inspiring the said Seamstress to seek out a new life. There is a bit of a Western bias in this film– after all, they do promote Western authors here– but Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress contemplates the changes that have occurred to the countryside, being originally idealized and considered more virtuous, only to be completely changed for water dams.

Zhou Xun. She is so captivating to watch that when she suggests stealing the illegal books, it’s no surprise the two boys do so.