Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress

By: Dai Sijie, Ina Rilke-translator / Narrated By: B.D. Wong

Length: 4 hrs and 18 mins

Pure poetry, but reads like Young Adult

I dunno—maybe it’s B.D. Wong’s narration, but Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress comes off as for a younger audience. It has hard-hitting themes, some violence, deals with desperate times in a desperate land, but really the poetry and most of the scenes are hampered by the characters sounding like little kids. Even when they’re young men, they have the voices of children. B.D. Wong is just fine for when they’re boys; as men, however? Jury’s still out.

Two young boys are sent to work as laborers because their fathers are guilty of belonging to the privileged, educated class. They endure hardship because of this, yes. But it’s also what makes them harsh and judgmental of all those around them, the illiterate and superstitious peasants (who, come on, have had wretchedly hard lives with little power or voice up till then). Their acts of rebellion are fraught with cruelty; the very act of obtaining the books, the literature which keeps them going, is one of theft and lying. They even look down on the little seamstress, as though they, the literate, are gods from on high. Their intelligence is what they worship, not love, not friendship.

Okay, okay—so it’s beautifully written, pure poetry in fact. They can spot and appreciate the beauty within their environment. It’s just sad that they can’t really spot the beauty within the little seamstress.

A decent way to spend barely over 4-hours. You’ll learn some history, you’ll hear of much brutality. And you’ll be astonished by the ending.

Just don’t expect much in the way of empathy…