Reviews

2008-07-12 02:20:39

"Melds the anger and storytelling scope of Dickens, the doc-influenced immediacy and sensitive gaze of the Dardenne brothers, and the best tendencies of recent Chinese cinema."
-- Robert Koehler, Variety

Little Moth “is a nearly perfect little film”. Modest in its means, yet remarkably powerful, and not a little devastating, Peng Tao's first feature is a woeful and gritty tale of child exploitation in rural China.
--Shelly Kraicer

Made in the semi-improvised, social-realist mode preferred by Peng Tao’s fellow Sixth Gen filmmakers Li Yang and Wang Xiaoshuai, Little Moth may remind western viewers of the most bracing films of De Sica, Bresson and the Dardennes. That the film manages to be suspenseful, moving yet ruthlessly unsentimental points to a level of sophistication belied by its rough-hewn aesthetic. In other words, you’d be wise to catch Little Moth before it flutters away.
--Jason Anderson, eyeweekly