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Siqin Gaowa,
Siqin Gaowa,
Wu Yujian,
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Xie Fei,
Xie Fei
see all cast/crew...
: Knight
: Drama, Foreign, China
: 106 min.
: Mandarin
: English
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In a rural area of China, a woman makes the best sesame oil in the neighborhood. A Japanese businesswoman wants to buy her oil and proposes to modernize the oil mill. The woman agrees to cooperate. Her son is in love with a local girl, but the girl's parents don't let her marry him because of the boy's epilepsy. However, using the poor financial state of the girl's family, the woman arranges this uneasy marriage. The film is slow-paced and many story lines remain unresolved, but some viewers might be attracted by the fact that it received the Grand Prize at the 1993 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Yuri German, All Movie Guide
Winner of both the Golden Bear and the Film Critics' Award at the 1993 Berlin Film Festival, WOMAN SESAME OIL MAKER is written and directed by Xie Fei, who mentored internationally acclaimed filmmakers such as Chen Kaige (FAREWELL MY CONCUBINE) and Zhang Yimou (RAISE THE RED LANTERN) at the Beijing Film Academy.
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| China's best actress
by tboot
September 10, 2004 - 12:29 PM PDT
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2 out of 2 members found this review helpful
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| In a rural village on the edge of the Lake of Souls, a small, family-run factory produces golden sesame oil in the traditional way. Xiang, the no-nonsense matriarch of the factory and family, keeps both running in spite of her brutish, drunkard husband and the burden of a retarded, epileptic 22-year-old son. Suddenly, the factory leaps into the twentieth century when a Japanese company invests modern equipment and money in the business. This unexpected windfall allows Xiang, in a transaction not unlike the one conducted with the Japanese (or the one that sold her to her husband when she was a child), to buy a wife for her son. This superb, multi-layered drama features both startlingly beautiful cinematography and an unforgettable performance by Siqin Gaowa--perhaps China?s gretest actress--as Xiang. What begins as a simple village tale becomes a splendidly complex portrait of a tough, middle-aged woman discovering for the first time how uncertain life really is. |
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GreenCine Member Rating
(Average 7.22)
9 Votes
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