Dai Sijie Movies
- 2006
Dai Sijie's dramatic story of star-crossed lesbian love, The Chinese Botanist's Daughters stars Mylene Jampanoi as Li Min, an orphan since the age of three who gets a job as assistant to a botanist. While on the island where they do their research, Li Min falls in love with the botanist's daughter. The two secretly engage in a sexually charged relationship that blossoms into true love. When the scientist's son arrives home after some time in the military, the commanding old man forces the son to marry Li Min. When the son discovers that his new bride has had sex before their wedding night, tragedy ensues. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mylene Jampanoi, Li Xiao-ran, (more)
- 2002
- NR
- Add Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress to QueueAdd Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress to top of Queue
Dai Sijie directs Balzac et La Petite Tailleuse Chinoise (The Little Chinese Seamstress), a film adaptation of his own best-selling autobiographical novel. Set in China during the Cultural Revolution of the 1970s, the story follows Luo (Chen Kun) and Ma (Liu Ye), two young men from the city who are sent to a mountain village for a re-education in Maoist principles. They work with the peasants under the supervision of the village head man (Wang Shuangbao), who considers their violin to be a symbol of the bourgeoisie. Luo and Ma both fall in love with the little Chinese seamstress (Ziiou Xun), the daughter of the tailor (Chung Zhijun), and they read her forbidden works of Western literature including French writers Balzac and Dumas. The conclusion finds the two men reminincing about their experiences 30 years later. Balzac et La Petite Tailleuse Chinoise premiered at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- 1998
Chinese filmmaker Dai Sije, who was educated in France, directed a French crew, lead Japanese actor Akihiro Nishida, and a mostly Vietnamese cast in this French-Canadian-Vietnamese drama set in China. Restaurant owner Tang the 11th (Nishida), learning his older brother, Tang the First (Tapa Sudana) is ill, returns to the his remote native village, long plagued by leprosy. Superstition holds that a cure can be obtained when a family of five sons and five daughters makes possible the death of a fish from the Lake of Heaven, since the leprosy remedy is in the flesh of this fish. It just so happens that Tang the 11th has five sons, four daughters, and a pregnant wife. Shown in competition at the Montreal World Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Akihiro Nishida, Tapa Sudana, (more)
- 1989
Originally released as Chine Ma Douleur, the French/German China, My Sorrow takes place during the Chinese cultural revolution of the mid-1960s. At that time, it was strictly forbidden to express any interest for "Western" culture. Thus, teen-aged Guo Liang Yi is arrested, humiliated in public, and shipped off to a re-education camp when he plays a pop-music record. The pressures of the redoctrination process serves only to make the boy more fiercely independent than ever. Not surprisingly, China, My Sorrow director Dai Sijie was himself obliged to leave China to enjoy full creative freedom. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Guo Liang Yi, Tieu Quan Nghieu, (more)
