# I Am Not Madame Bovary (我不是潘金莲)
**I Am Not Madame Bovary** (我不是潘金莲) is a 2016 Chinese satirical comedy film directed by Feng Xiaogang, starring [Fan Bingbing](https://www.edgepedia.org/fan-bingbing) as the rural woman Li Xuelin, and adapted from [Liu Zhenyun](https://www.edgepedia.org/liu-zhenyun)'s 2012 novel of the same name.[1](https://ient.ifeng.com/c/7e2H0pq3QMO) • [2](https://movie.douban.com/review/15474709/) The film follows Li Xuelin's twenty-year campaign to clear her name after her ex-husband compares her to Pan Jinlian, an archetypal adulteress from [Chinese literature](https://www.edgepedia.org/chinese-literature), and it is known for its unusual circular and square aspect ratios.[3](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/n1/2016/1123/c405172-28888397.html) • [4](https://www.zgwypl.com/content/details52_43942.html)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Source | Adapted from Liu Zhenyun's 2012 novel, his first with a female protagonist[2](https://movie.douban.com/review/15474709/) • [5](https://m.jiemian.com/article/906672.html) |
| Director and star | Feng Xiaogang (director, also narrator); Fan Bingbing as Li Xuelin[1](https://ient.ifeng.com/c/7e2H0pq3QMO) • [3](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/n1/2016/1123/c405172-28888397.html) |
| Release | Originally set for China's National Day holiday slot, moved to November 18, 2016[6](https://culture.people.com.cn/n1/2016/0921/c22219-28728572.html) |
| Major awards | Golden Shell for best film and Silver Shell for best actress at the 64th San Sebastián International Film Festival; FIPRESCI prize at Toronto[7](https://www.jiemian.com/article/969415.html) • [6](https://culture.people.com.cn/n1/2016/0921/c22219-28728572.html) |
| Aspect ratios | Circular frame for hometown scenes (about 80% of the film), 1:1 square for Beijing, 2.39:1 for the ending[4](https://www.zgwypl.com/content/details52_43942.html) |
| Reception | Rotten Tomatoes 87% (20 of 23 reviews fresh); IMDb 6.8; Douban about 6.9 of 10[8](https://www.nbd.com.cn/articles/2016-12-01/1058058.html) • [9](https://mtoutiao.xdf.cn/yingyu/201612/10579213.html) |
| Later adaptation | A stage version by Gulouxi Theatre began a national tour in March 2022[10](https://ent.people.com.cn/n1/2022/0221/c1012-32356518.html) |
## Spoilers
### Plot and title
The story turns on a single sentence. Li Xuelin and her husband stage a fake divorce so that she can have a second child, but he goes through with the separation in earnest and marries another woman. When she confronts him, he adds an insult: she was not a virgin before marriage, so she is really Pan Jinlian, the adulteress of *Water Margin* and *[Jin Ping Mei](https://www.edgepedia.org/jin-ping-mei)* fame. To clear her name and get a say in the matter, she demands the absurd remedy of marrying him again and divorcing him properly, and when the courts and officials fail to satisfy her, she spends twenty years petitioning higher authorities.[3](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/n1/2016/1123/c405172-28888397.html)
The English title invites confusion. Variety critic Dennis Harvey joked at Toronto that Flaubert would agree his tragic bourgeois heroine has nothing to do with Feng's ordinary protagonist, and many Western reviewers felt obliged to explain that the film is not related to *Madame Bovary*.[8](https://www.nbd.com.cn/articles/2016-12-01/1058058.html) The Chinese title works the same way as a denial: the whole plot exists because Li Xuelin refuses to be identified with Pan Jinlian.[3](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/n1/2016/1123/c405172-28888397.html)
## The novel and the adaptation
Liu Zhenyun published the novel in 2012, and it was his first to center on a woman; producer Du Yang linked the shift to the work of Liu's wife, the lawyer Guo Jianmei, who handles cases for rural women.[2](https://movie.douban.com/review/15474709/) • [5](https://m.jiemian.com/article/906672.html) The novel has a deliberately lopsided structure: two long chapters, together more than a hundred thousand characters, follow Li Xuelin's first petition, which accidentally reaches the [National People's Congress](https://www.edgepedia.org/national-peoples-congress) and costs every local official his job, and her twenty years of continued petitioning; a final chapter of only a few thousand characters, titled "the main text," tells the story of the county head who lost his post over her case.[3](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/n1/2016/1123/c405172-28888397.html)
The film is faithful to the novel's premise but compresses it. It drops the novel's third chapter entirely, removes the episode in which Li Xuelin considers offering herself to her old classmate, the cook Zhao Datou, to reach Beijing, and changes the ending so that she survives a suicide attempt and opens a restaurant across from the [Beijing railway station](https://www.edgepedia.org/beijing-railway-station) instead.[3](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/n1/2016/1123/c405172-28888397.html) Critics such as Chen Lei in *Literary Gazette* judged the film smaller in scope than the original, partly because the director's own narration and visual treatment pull the story toward a personal legend rather than the novel's social breadth.[3](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/n1/2016/1123/c405172-28888397.html) Liu himself wrote the screenplay, producing a first draft in about a month, and the filmmakers framed the story as a black comedy about a distinctly Chinese legal predicament, unlike *[The Story of Qiu Ju](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-story-of-qiu-ju)*, where the grievance is one the law can actually resolve.[5](https://m.jiemian.com/article/906672.html)
## Visual form: the round and square frames
The film's most discussed feature is its use of three aspect ratios. The hometown scenes in rural Wuyuan, Jiangxi, use a circular frame covering roughly 80% of the running time; the Beijing petitioning scenes use a 1:1 square; and the ending opens into a 2.39:1 widescreen.[4](https://www.zgwypl.com/content/details52_43942.html) The circle was not shot with a round lens but created by post-production masking, and to suit its look the crew used 1970s vintage lenses whose aged coatings give low saturation, soft contrast, and slight color shifts.[11](https://www.aisixiang.com/data/116512.html)
Critics read the shapes symbolically. The circle evokes traditional fans, the moon gates and round windows of Suzhou gardens, and the closed, roundabout human relations of small-town life, while the square stands for the rules and legal order of the capital, against which Li Xuelin appears small and powerless.[3](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/n1/2016/1123/c405172-28888397.html) • [12](https://www.fx361.com/page/2017/1114/10924648.shtml) The circular frame also produces a voyeuristic, third-person distance, as if the official world were being watched while it misbehaves.[12](https://www.fx361.com/page/2017/1114/10924648.shtml) Feng said he wanted to discard his accumulated habits and treat the project like a first film; Liu Zhenyun initially disagreed with both the circular frame and the move of the setting from a northern village to Wuyuan, but did not block the director's choices.[5](https://m.jiemian.com/article/906672.html) • [3](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/n1/2016/1123/c405172-28888397.html)
## Reception and awards
The film premiered publicly at the 64th San Sebastián International Film Festival on September 18, 2016, and took the festival's two principal awards, the Golden Shell for best film and the Silver Shell for Fan Bingbing as best actress; it also won the FIPRESCI (international critics) prize in the Special Presentations section at the [Toronto International Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/toronto-international-film-festival) the same day.[7](https://www.jiemian.com/article/969415.html) • [6](https://culture.people.com.cn/n1/2016/0921/c22219-28728572.html) After the Toronto award, the release was moved from the crowded National Day holiday to November 18, 2016, with Feng arguing that a strong film could heat up a cold slot.[6](https://culture.people.com.cn/n1/2016/0921/c22219-28728572.html)
Western reviews were largely positive. Rotten Tomatoes recorded 87% freshness, with 20 of 23 reviews favorable, and IMDb listed 6.8; Variety called the film charming, and *The Hollywood Reporter* praised Fan's comic timing, while *Screen* critic David D'Arcy called it her most affecting performance.[8](https://www.nbd.com.cn/articles/2016-12-01/1058058.html) • [1](https://ient.ifeng.com/c/7e2H0pq3QMO) • [7](https://www.jiemian.com/article/969415.html) Domestic response was more divided. Douban settled around 6.9 out of 10, and Chinese commentary split between praise for the film's satire of officialdom and male-dominated society and criticism that the story was absurd or that the satire stopped short.[9](https://mtoutiao.xdf.cn/yingyu/201612/10579213.html) • [13](https://hall.pku.edu.cn/zxdt/jtxw/58041488581b43749abe853d8ec3c302.htm) A People's Daily commentary credited the film with bringing rarely filmed subjects, fake divorce and petitioning, to the screen while avoiding direct sermonizing, using humor and absurdity to carry its critique.[14](https://culture.people.com.cn/n1/2016/1128/c1013-28901762.html)
## Themes
The film's central question, sustained through most of its running time, is whether Li Xuelin is being reasonable; the reviewer Han Haoyue suggested that viewers who conclude she is simply stubborn may be counting themselves among the more than twenty officials who fail her.[15](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/n1/2016/1122/c404004-28885485.html) The bureaucracy is not caricatured as idle: officials below the provincial level all call on Li Xuelin personally to talk her out of petitioning, because their careers depend on stopping her, and their diligent efforts make the situation worse.[3](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/n1/2016/1123/c405172-28888397.html) Scholarly readings have noted that the film softens the novel's reflection on how modern power operates, and that Feng's narrative strategy, having Li Xuelin abandon her petition three times so the event drifts from reason into absurdity, moderates the political sensitivity of the material.[16](https://fsxb.cbpt.cnki.net/portal/journal/portal/client/paper/706337c3905b061e73aba76bb10f719b) • [17](https://m.fx361.com/news/2017/0714/2037082.html)
The story reached another medium in 2022, when Gulouxi Theatre staged it as a theater of absurdist realism, with Zhang Xinyi in the lead, touring nationally from March 2022 after premiering at the [Guangzhou Opera House](https://www.edgepedia.org/guangzhou-opera-house).[10](https://ent.people.com.cn/n1/2022/0221/c1012-32356518.html)
## References
1. [《我不是潘金莲》北美评论出炉 范冰冰表演低调出彩, 时光网 via 凤凰网](https://ient.ifeng.com/c/7e2H0pq3QMO)
2. [執念，是對是錯？（我不是潘金莲）影评, Douban](https://movie.douban.com/review/15474709/)
3. [较之原作，格局气象都缩减了——关于电影《我不是潘金莲》, 文艺报 via 中国作家网](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/n1/2016/1123/c405172-28888397.html)
4. [李道新：《我不是潘金莲》："画幅"的哲学, 中国文艺评论网](https://www.zgwypl.com/content/details52_43942.html)
5. [关于冯小刚《我不是潘金莲》的八个疑问, 界面新闻](https://m.jiemian.com/article/906672.html)
6. [冯小刚携"潘金莲"出国捞奖 新片延期11月18日上映, 北京晚报 via 人民网](https://culture.people.com.cn/n1/2016/0921/c22219-28728572.html)
7. [《我不是潘金莲》：范冰冰打破花瓶形象，贡献个人史上最好演技, 界面新闻](https://www.jiemian.com/article/969415.html)
8. [透过隧道来看"潘金莲", 每经网](https://www.nbd.com.cn/articles/2016-12-01/1058058.html)
9. [看《我不是潘金莲》之前 你需要知道的几件事, 新东方网](https://mtoutiao.xdf.cn/yingyu/201612/10579213.html)
10. [刘震云同名长篇小说改编 《我不是潘金莲》启动全国巡演, 人民网](https://ent.people.com.cn/n1/2022/0221/c1012-32356518.html)
11. [孟君：动力与悬置：电影的两种技术变革与美学取向, 爱思想](https://www.aisixiang.com/data/116512.html)
12. [《我不是潘金莲》：方圆之间的镜像美学和荒诞现实, 电影评介 via 参考网](https://www.fx361.com/page/2017/1114/10924648.shtml)
13. [《我不是潘金莲》：满眼荒诞，一堆反讽, 北京大学百周年纪念讲堂](https://hall.pku.edu.cn/zxdt/jtxw/58041488581b43749abe853d8ec3c302.htm)
14. [《我不是潘金莲》：喜剧可以缓解生活的痛痒, 人民网](https://culture.people.com.cn/n1/2016/1128/c1013-28901762.html)
15. [电影《我不是潘金莲》：照见现实的光束, 人民日报 via 中国作家网](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/n1/2016/1122/c404004-28885485.html)
16. [从小说到电影：《我不是潘金莲》的性别符号与存在困境, 闽江学院学报](https://fsxb.cbpt.cnki.net/portal/journal/portal/client/paper/706337c3905b061e73aba76bb10f719b)
17. [极端叙述下的妥协, 艺苑 via 参考网](https://m.fx361.com/news/2017/0714/2037082.html)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Black comedy and satire films › Released 1998 to 2024*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license