Hellen I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

Redwarmin This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

Nonureva Really Surprised!

Adeel Hail Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Cristi_Ciopron It is,in a certain way, almost strange to write something about this movie, now, so long after I have really admired it, so long after I have so intensely cherished it.XIU—XIU might be described as a small—scale romantic—naturalistic synthesis. It has gusto, flair and pace. It has suavity, and visions of hell. It is very coherent, limpid and well—constructed. The directorial approach is sober and incisive.It is deliberately heartbreaking and shocking and sensationally lyrical, of extreme emotional density ,a remarkable experience of art, of rich emotions; and, although not decadent in itself, it strongly appeals to decadent sensibilities and receptivity. (I thought it was good in a Rozanov/Bloy/ Nietzsche way, as I was able then to define the sphere of perception.) It treated highly, in a dignified perspective ,of humble things, elemental feelings and atrocious events. It played like the sum-ma of a certain art.Mainly on its base, I have formulated, or rather improvised, a quite decadent theory, the idea of the cruel, savage movie. By this, I meant a kind of lyrical and inspired naturalism, shocking and thrilling, the kind that might be seen in XIU—XIU, in the R. Harris masterpiece This Sporting Life (1963) and in some scenes of A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) .The film has strength and several merits. It is of an explicit beauty. It is a synthesis—a vision of art, a synthetic take. It has a vision of the human life, society, violence, evil, pain. It has a contemplative, quite and slow side. It is beautifully conceived and acted. Its sadness is visceral and piercing. For a time, I thought it better than anything else. During my XIU—XIU era, when I resolutely campaigned for it among my pals, I also liked ED WOOD.On the viewer's part, XIU—XIU might define an inclination towards finding beauty in its most compact and intense expressions. An aptitude for finding it. XIU—XIU is also an admirably crafted drama, that adds competence to the inspiration' s high aim.

md7-1 This movie has a really nice pace of editing among the many beautiful images presented by Joan Chen. You should take note that the pace isn't very fast and the story presents it self very linear. Without making clichés. For me it wasn't disturbing, I even embraced it.I watched this movie because the band Xiu Xiu recommended it. And I knew that this wasn't going to be happy-happy-joy-joy-experience.But the movie really grabbed me after wards, knowing that this isn't likely for many movies I regard this movie as a masterpiece. Strong Cinematography, good acting, moving story, nice soundtrack (not only the music), fine pace of editing.Be good to your self and step in to this experience.

George Parker "Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl", Joan Chen's directorial debut, tells the story of a midteen girl from a poor family in 1970's China who is taken from her family and sent to do menial labor in the tundra far from home ("sent down") as part of China's cultural revolution youth labor/education program. The result is a less than happy story which waxes to a startling climax in the last couple of minutes of the film. I became aware of this film upon its release to DVD, read glowing reviews and advertising which touted it as "banned in Bejing", and finally, after it inexplicably disappeared from the Netflix inventory, managed to scrounge a VHS copy from a local Hollywood Video store. Perhaps all the fuss raised my expectations as the film was not as good as the critics and hype led me to expect. In typically Chinese fashion the story is simple and minimalistic with only two characters dominating its austere landscape as it delivers its dark tale of a exploited girl and her older emasculated mentor. The production value was low end and the film appears to be a low budget project but, most of all, I was troubled by the denouement which seems contrived for shock value, incongruous with the story, and begs some serious questions about the behavior of the male lead. Recommended only for those into foreign films, particularly East Asian, or others with a specific interest in the place and time. For maximum enjoyment ignor the hype, keep expectations real, and don't be too analytical. (B-)

tedg Spoilers herein.Joan Chen is a lovely woman who went to the Chinese outback to learn how ordinary people think visually. So she makes a film about a lovely girl sent to the Chinese outback to learn how ordinary people think agriculturally.The girl ends up feeling she has to prostitute herself to find her way back home. And so with Ms Chen, and as with the girl, we the viewer get some superficial pleasure.This is a simple film, and one can see that it was made by someone with an actor's sensibility. The story is extremely economical, so much so that the camera is anchored to the actors. Every shot is an actor's shot: either to place the actor in a scene or to show the actor acting. The one exception is a rather heavihanded cloud metaphor. This works because the project has such low ambition, but it has the effect of abstracting the story so much we just don't care.A more experienced filmmaker might work at defining the situation, setting up some complex dynamics in the world and then placing some characters within those dynamics. That way we watch them in a context that we understand. Bertolucci did that with `The Last Emperor' in which Ms Chen worked as one of those actors responding to their environment. Here, she has it the other way around. We still get the wilderness, the political idealism and associated petty tyrants. But they are the the other way around, what our heroine sees. We, through our surrogate the camera eye, never see the bigger picture.In a sense, this is a `Taxi Driver' bet, a first film where we get things through one character's mind. It worked for Scorsese because he was fearless in putting us on the edge. This project was clearly designed that way, like `taxi' with the edge being in the sexual exploitation of a young girl. But Ms Chen backs away when the chips are down. Some more visual pain, more explicit images, more of a linkage of loneliness to the environment (for example in the Bertolucci `Sheltering Sky').So what we end up with is a small film where everything seems competent but nothing works quite right. She followed this up with the very similarly conceived `Autumn in NY.' Prostitution in the name of getting home. Sad.Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 4: Has some interesting elements.