Xi shi yan (2002) User Reviews

Some true stories...

[Fiorentina · 7/10 · 29 July 2005]

This movie is far from showing the beauties in China, therefore, I'm not so fancy about talking if the actresses are attractive or not.

The movie is talking about 3 women's different fates. They are coming from the small town in ZheJiang province, the hometown of Xi Shi (one of the four historical beauties in China). One of the women (acted by Yiqun Huang) is an yue opera actress, in her career, she is acting Xi Shi. As one of the best singers, she finally lost her part as Xi Shi in the theater since another opera actress has better background (the opera group can be sponsored if using her as the main actress)...

This movie shows some cruel realities. These are quite true somehow. Therefore, seeing this movie you can see what happened in some places of China. However, the whole movie fails to present a beautiful view. The stories are quite good, but the quality of the pictures can be improved.

a movie about Chinese women

[rrfhl · 10/10 · 7 October 2005]

Nice story, nice story-telling. It's a movie about three Chinese women's lives in a Southeast town in China. This town is the hometown of Xi Shi, one of the four most beautiful women in Chinese history, somehow like Helan of Troy. Three stories are told separately, but in some scenes two of the three appeared together, although they don't know each other. This makes it fun to watch this movie, or even re-watch it. Just imagine you walk along three different creeks who crossed one another at certain points. But you might need to know a little about the town Zhu Ji, and the Chinese beauty Xi Shi, to enjoy the movie more. Plus, the actress who acted the singer of Yu Ju, one kind of Chinese opera (like Beijing Opera, believe me, China has hundreds of them), is a real singer. So enjoy the singing as well.

Beauty is in the eyes' of beholder

[zzmale · 6 April 2004]

The actual literal translation of the title of this movie is: the Eyes of Xi Shi.

Xi Shi is one of the 5 most beautiful women in Chinese history, (so it's been said), and she lived in the southeastern part of China more than two thousand years ago. Personally, I do not see anything particular about the "beautiful" actresses and characters in this movie, but please don't get me wrong, these actresses are not that bad either, it is just that they are not my taste. My favorite pretty Chinese actress would be Vicki Zhao (Wei Zhao), but then again, it is just my personal standard. The actresses in this movie, however, do fit the western idea of oriental beauties.