Balzac and the Little Chinese Semstress

This Film Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress was actually a novel by Dai Sijie which was originally a french film. Its about two young boys named Lou and Ma who are sent off to the mountains to be "re- educated". When they get there the Chief looks through there things and notices book and ask Lou and Ma what is it, and of course they are taking back because its a book and anyone can see that. Lu and Me realize that no one can read on this mountain. They soon meet the granddaughter or a tailor little seamstress and they both end up falling for her. Both Lou and Ma decided to help the little seamstress out by reading to her Western books, which aren't allowed. They found these books from another young boy called Four Eyes who is also being Re-educated. Four eyes has been really successful in being re- educated however he has been hiding these books. So Lou and Ma end up stealing them from his room.
Lou and Ma keep this a secret from everyone and each day they read new storys to the little seamstress and hes gets every inspired by the storyies that they read to her. They wanted her to be educated about the world and see whats out there and they know reading these books to her would be the only way. I also feel it was a way to keep her around then since they both loved her so much. Lou however became real close with her they begame to have a physical realtionship and the little semstress became pregnet later on in the film but found a doctor that would do an ilegal abortion. When lou comes back from the city visting his father everything great, but then his plan to educate little semstress backfires and she falls in love with the story Balzc feels that its her time to leave the mountains and start a better life. Lou and Ma never see her again after that day.
This Film was good but it was alittle slow for me I thought it would have alittle more action in it. It was alittle werid to see how different people in the city and mountains lived. It was like two different worlds, and it seemed like the people in the mountains didn't even care to learn how to read or move forward. over all it was a good film i would recomand it but it was alittle slow.

The Wedding Banquet

The movie The Wedding Banquet is a Taiwanese film directed by Ang Lee who also directed movies like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Brokeback Mountain. This Film takes place in Manhattan NY, where a businessman Wei Tong and the love of his life Simon live together. Everything is fine and great in there life’s, however there is one problem Wei Tongs mom and dad has no idea that he is gay. His parents have been trying to fix him up with different women for years because all they want is for their son to have grandchildren, so Wei Tong goes along with all the dates they fix him up with just to make his mother happy. But he realizes that this is getting annoying to have to keep sending his mother letters about fake women he claims to be with.

Soon his boyfriend Simon thinks of a great idea to have Wei Wei (played by May chin) who is renting out Simons apartment across town, to act like they are together and have been in love for awhile. Since Wei Wei needs a green card and help with making rent she agrees and Wei Tong thinks it’s a great idea. He can help Wei Wei out and at the same time have his parents believe he finally is going to settle down. This is here everything goes wrong, after Wei Tong writes his parents about how much in love he is with Wei Wei and how they plan on getting married his parents decided to make a surprise visit and stay with them for 2 weeks so they will be there for their "marriage". Wei Tong, Simon and Wei Wei all freak out and isn't sure how they are going to do this but they keep telling them self’s its only 2 weeks and then they will be gone.

His parents arrive and everything is going great Wei Tong and Wei Wei act like they are in love...Sleeping in the same bed, she acts like she cooks when really Simon is helping her, and Simon plays the role of the landlord and Roommate to Wei Tong and Wei Wei. So Wei Tong and Wei Wei end up going to city hall to get married and both his parents are upset by this because that wanted him to have a very big wedding with a huge banquet. After city hall they have dinner at restaurant and his parents run into an old friend of theirs who also doesn't think its right they didn't have a real wedding and offers to throw them ad big wedding banquet. This is when things again start to not go as planned, there is this big party for them and Wei Tong and Wei Wei ends up getting drunk and they have sex. Simon doesn't know that he slept with Wei Wei until later. Simon and Wei Tongs relationship starts to go through hard times since they can't really be there for each other in a romantic way. Simon starts to go out more and hang with other people which doesn't make Wei Tong happy.

This is when Wei Tong finds out Wei Wei is pregnant and when Simon finds out he freaks out and starts screaming about how could this happen etc... Thinking that Wei tongs parents don't understand any English. Wei Tong tells his mother finally that he is gay and that he and Simon are in love and that everything was not real. His mother is upset but doesn't want to tell his father due to the fact he is always sick and she thinks it would kill him. However the father does speak alittle bit of english and lets Simon know that he has found out bout there relationship and isn't upset like the mother is. End the end Wei Wei decides to keep the child and have Simon and Wei Tong to be the fathers of the child.

This is a great film that kept me laughing fun start to finish. I did recognize the father from the first movie I watched Eat Drink Man Women. Again the father did a wonderful job in this film. I think its pretty fun how Wei Tong wanted to do was make his parents happy and he thought he didn't but really in the end he has. Because not only did he get to come out and get off his chest his relationship with Simon he still is going to be a father as well. I loved everything about the movie I really think if you haven’t seen it go out and rent it, it’s definitely worth it.

Here is one of my favorite scenes from the film where Simon Finds out about Wei Wei being pregnant and starts yelling in English...and no one know that the father can understand what Simon is say

Stolen Life

This Film was amazing and I don't even know where to start, Its a film by Sheng si jie. Stolen Life is a film that takes place in Beijing China, it starts off with a young girl named Yanni who has been sent off to live with her grandma at around the age 7. Growing up Yanni who is played by Xun Zhou, never had a relationship with her parents, they would try and visit her but Yanni would never say one word to them. She grew up as a loner and didn't really have a future a head of her, her grandmother ,aunt and mother all wanted her to go off and get married and work. But her father was the only one who insisted that she go to a University and get an education. It was very strange for Yanni to hear her father say it was a good idea for her to go off to a University when she hasn't ever even spoke to him or had any type of relationship with him. She always thought they didn't care about her.

The day Yanni leaves for the University no one even says goodbye to her or to even see her off. But her life is changed by just one little car accident. As shes driving in the taxi to the University the taxi crashed into a delivery truck and that's when she meets Muym who is 7 years older then Yanni and was the driver of the truck. Muym is a con man but we don't find that out until near the end of the movie. He sweet talks her makes her fall in love with him, they start to spend every day together after she gets out of school. She then moves in with him in a crappy little dump basement room then finds out she pregnant and drops out of the University. She cuts her family out of her life, they think that shes has been dead for over a year. Her and Muyn have not money they start to sell food on the streets at night to try and make alittle income.
This is when Yanni Aunt runs into her and can't believe she is alive but pregnet too. Her Aunt then tells her mom and her mom comes to see her and Yanni wants nothing to do with her but her mom Explains everything Yanni wanted to know about her past and why her mother couldn't take care of her. Yanni then realizes that she really just messed up her life. as her mom Leaves she makes a deal with Muym to have the child put up for adoption after its born, Yanni cna't believe muym would do something like this.

After the baby is born its giving away and Yanni and Muym go on with there life's like everyday. Yanni gets a visit from a women who claims to be Muyms wife, that's sets Yanni off and she starts to look for clues in there house this is when she finds adoption receipts and it all comes to her that Muym is a con man and used her to sell the child. Yanni confronts him and he laughs and her tells her how dummn she is and how he has done this many times before and just used her because she was a hopeless and naive student. HE just leaves her, she wanted to kill him but she knew he wasn't worth it. and it end with Yanni later on in life and sees that Muym has done it again to another victim.

This movie was crazy and sad to see this girl who got into a University and was on her way to a better life and bright future but was so naive and wanted to be wanted by someone because she never had that love from her family. So she got it from Muym who really Stole her life and her child away from her. Everything that happened to her mother has happened to her, falling in love with an older man getting pregnant and dropping out of school. I think the title of this film could not fit any better. I think Xun Zhou is a wonderful actress and if you love Stolen life you will def love her in Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress. Here is a clip

MR.Chu cooking ( makes you hungry)

Eat Drink Man Women

Eat Drink Man Women is a very charming film that shows the challenges of family and traditions. Mast Chef Chu who is played by Sihung Lung, hi wife had past away when hes daughters were very young, so hes been a widow for awhile. He lives with his three unmarried daughters Jain-Chien who is a chemistry teacher who is very big in Christianity, Jia- Chien who is a airline executive, and Jia-Ning who is a student but also works at a local fast food restaurant.
Mr. Chu and his daughters have a very interesting relationship. Hes is a very big well know Chef, and through out the film he makes dinner every sunday for his daughters which is there family tradition. However his daughters are very ungrateful and self -consumed they don't even see how hard he try's to show them love. His daughters feel his alittle overbored with the cook 10 different dishes for 4 people, but for Mr. Chu its his way of communication to his daughters. Communication starts to brake down alot from start to finish within the family.
Through out the film we see that there are many announcements at the Sunday dinners that come up and this is here the family starts to fall apart. Each of his daughters has a story of there own and a past, Ja-jen who is very into her religion and is looking for Mr. Right and wants to fall in love. She starts receiving letters at work thinking there from some mystery man but later finds out its not but this whole situation helps her grown into who she really is and breaks out of her shel. Jia-Ning the baby out of the three who is the first to move out and and ends up pregnant, then there is Jain-Chiem who has the most interesting relationship with her father ( Mr.Chu). She loves to cook and that's were all her happy childhood memory's come from but knows that living with her father she wont be aloud to cook. That's why they bump heads, there so much alike but so different. Jain-Chiem may seem like she doesn't care to much about her father or his cooking but shes the one you can tell that cares the most. All she wants is to move out of her fathers house but becomes the last one to do it, everyone moves out with there love they found including her father and she hasn't.
This film definitely challenges family and traditions, the culture is brought out very strong in this film. From the food and the community.. There is alot of different things I noticed that l liked. I loved how the director Ang Lee (The Ice Storm, Sense and Sensibility) showed the authentic culture especially with the food, he really showed great detail with it.
The film I thought was ok not my favorite but it was a really cute story. my favorite character was Mr. Chu and how excited he was about making food all the time like he did for Shan-Shan. That actually was my favorite scene when he brought her lunch to school and all the other little kids went crazy. I also though it was really funny when Mr. Chu finally had his "announcement" to make to everyone and how it shocked everyone that he was really seeing Jin-Rong and not her mother. Over all I think this Film was good and would be great for someone that can relate to Mr.chu and his daughters. And a good movie to watch to just see how a family makes it through the ups and downs.

Raise The Red Lantern

The first film I decided to watch was Raise The Red Lantern. This Film was directed by Zhang Yimou who also directed "Hero" and " House of Flying daggers". Raise The Red Lantern was a academy award nominee for Best Foreign Film, and it defiantly deserved it. This was a wonderful movie about a young women named Songlian who was played by Gong Li. Songlian had a very bright future ahead of her, she was being educated at a university and had alot going for her. But unfortunately her father had just passed away and her stepmother forces her to go off and be married to a man who already had three different wife's who all live in there own houses in the family compound. songlian doesn't want this life but knows that going to school isn't an option due to lack of money.

As Songlian arrives to this family compound which is closed off to the outsides, she meets the three other wife's which are all called First Mistress, Second Mistress and Third mistress and not by there first names. Shes very out of place at first she doesn't want to have nothing to do with the Master or any of the women until she becomes friends with Mistress number 2 because shes really nice to her and talks to her but later on we find out Mistress Number 2 isn't so nice and is very sneaky and is trying to sabotage all of the other mistress behind there backs.
throughout the film all that, the women want is the masters attention and hope for the red lantern to be lit in front of there door each night, this shows whom the master chooses to sleep with . Soon Songlian becomes this completely different person , she was very sweet and innocent in the beginning then starts making up lies and doing things that end up hurting other people in the end. Toward the end of the film it all hits her that this is all a game and her life will never be the same.


Before watching this film I had heard it wasn't that good, but I have to say that I really did enjoy it. I loved Gong Li character Songlian and how such a great job she did in this role. It was really weird to see how they all called each other first mistress or fourth mistress when they have names, it was like there were cats and dogs and not people. It was also was sad to watch her Songlain to have to give up her future to have to go live in a world that seems like you were dead. Every little thing from morning to night had to be done by Family coustomes from the past However it was very interesting to see culture come through in the film. I think the film focused alot on showing how Passion can get in the way of who you are. We watch Songlian go from this girl who doesn't want anything to do with this place, then trys to do everything she can for attention from the master to not caring about anything again. I believe that Songlian wish she was in Yang and the Third Mistress place toward the end of the film you can tell she rather have been dead. I also loved the music in the Movie.