# Woman Sesame Oil Maker (香魂女)
**Woman Sesame Oil Maker** (香魂女; also released as *The Women from the Lake of Scented Souls*) is a 1993 Chinese Mandarin-language drama film directed and written by Xie Fei, adapted from Zhou Daxin's novella *The Fragrant Oil Mill by the Lake of Scented Souls* (香魂塘畔的香油坊). It tells the story of Xiang Ersao, a shrewd village woman who builds a prosperous sesame oil business and then uses her money to buy a bride for her intellectually disabled son, and it shared the Golden Bear for Best Film at the 43rd [Berlin International Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/berlin-international-film-festival) with [Ang Lee](https://www.edgepedia.org/ang-lee)'s *The Wedding Banquet*.[1](https://film.xmu.edu.cn/info/1151/7995.htm) • [2](https://www.filmaffinity.com/us/film211017.html)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director and writer | Xie Fei (谢飞), who also wrote the screenplay; based on Zhou Daxin's novella[1](https://film.xmu.edu.cn/info/1151/7995.htm) |
| Production | Jointly produced by Tianjin Film Studio and Changchun Film Studio; 35 mm color film, 1993[1](https://film.xmu.edu.cn/info/1151/7995.htm) |
| Cast | Siqin Gaowa as Xiang Ersao, Wu Yujuan as Huanhuan, Chen Baoguo as Ren Zhongshi, Lei Kesheng as Que Ershu, Hu Xiaoguang as Dunzi[3](https://m.1905.com/m/film/starlist/60019.shtml) |
| Runtime and language | 105 minutes, Mandarin[4](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108608/) |
| Top award | Golden Bear, 43rd Berlin International Film Festival, shared with *The Wedding Banquet*[2](https://www.filmaffinity.com/us/film211017.html) |
| Other honors | 1992 Ministry of Radio, Film and Television Special Honor Award; Best Actress Silver Hugo for Siqin Gaowa at the Chicago International Film Festival; Top Ten Chinese Films at the Hong Kong Film Awards[5](https://m.fx361.com/news/2010/1231/28209041.html) |
| Restoration | 4K restoration by the Xiamen University–iQIYI joint laboratory, premiered at the 13th Beijing International Film Festival in April 2023[1](https://film.xmu.edu.cn/info/1151/7995.htm) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
Xiang Ersao (香二嫂), played by Siqin Gaowa, was sold as a child bride ([tongyangxi](https://www.edgepedia.org/tongyangxi), 童养媳) to her future husband, a man with a lame leg, when she was seven years old. Through diligence she has built the village's most successful sesame oil mill by Xianghun Lake, while her husband drinks and her grown son Dunzi (墩子) suffers from epilepsy and intellectual disability.[6](https://www.lovingchinese.com/woman-sesame-oil-maker-chinese-moviestv/)
A Japanese businesswoman, Xinyang Teiko (新洋贞子), visits the mill and decides to invest in expanding its production and sales, giving Xiang new wealth and standing.[2](https://www.filmaffinity.com/us/film211017.html) Xiang then engineers a marriage between Dunzi and Huanhuan (环环), a pretty, kind peasant girl whose family is trapped in debt. She arranges for Huanhuan's sweetheart, the worker Jin Hai, to be sent to work in town on the promise of higher wages, presses the credit cooperative to demand repayment from Huanhuan's family, and settles their debt in exchange for the betrothal.[7](https://m.1905.com/m/film/info/60019.shtml)
The marriage is miserable from the first night, when Dunzi's seizures begin. Huanhuan endures his violence and, in time, witnesses two secrets: her father-in-law beating Xiang, and Xiang's long affair with Ren Zhongshi (任忠实), the transporter who introduced the Japanese investor and who is the father of Xiang's daughter Zhi'er. When Ren initiates a break-up, Xiang falls ill, even as her sesame oil wins a provincial top prize. Recognizing in Huanhuan her own fate, since she too was once married off for money, Xiang urges Huanhuan to divorce Dunzi; Huanhuan breaks down, asking who would want her now.[6](https://www.lovingchinese.com/woman-sesame-oil-maker-chinese-moviestv/) • [7](https://m.1905.com/m/film/info/60019.shtml)
## Production
The film was Xie Fei's fifth feature and his adaptation moved the novella's setting from rural Henan to the Baiyangdian lake region in Hebei; many scenes drew on experiences of Beijing Film Academy teachers and students who had worked planting rice at Baiyangdian.[8](https://renrenwenxue.com/m.php?action=article&id=24049&typeid=17) The 1905 database lists the shooting location as Baiyangdian, Anxin, Baoding.[7](https://m.1905.com/m/film/info/60019.shtml)
Financing was uncertain. In a March 1993 [People's Daily](https://www.edgepedia.org/peoples-daily) interview after Berlin, Xie Fei recounted that investors predicted the film might lose money and studios hesitated to take it, until Tianjin Film Studio and Changchun Film Studio agreed to co-produce.[9](https://cn.govopendata.com/renminribao/1993/03/03/8/)
## Reception and awards
At the 43rd Berlin International Film Festival, the jury, which included [Zhang Yimou](https://www.edgepedia.org/zhang-yimou), agreed exceptionally to award the [Golden Bear](https://www.edgepedia.org/golden-bear) jointly to *Woman Sesame Oil Maker* and Ang Lee's *The Wedding Banquet*, recognizing Chinese-language cinema on both sides of the [Taiwan Strait](https://www.edgepedia.org/taiwan-strait); the award was announced on February 22, 1993.[9](https://cn.govopendata.com/renminribao/1993/03/03/8/) • [10](https://www.infzm.com/contents/219232?source=124&source_1=219457) The People's Daily reported that when the film screened at the festival's press conference, several hundred journalists responded strongly, ticket prices doubled, and the 1,000-seat Zoo Palace was full, with applause lasting several minutes.[9](https://cn.govopendata.com/renminribao/1993/03/03/8/)
Further honors followed: the 1992 Special Honor Award for feature films from the Ministry of Radio, Film and [Television](https://www.edgepedia.org/television); the Silver Hugo for Best Actress for Siqin Gaowa at the Chicago International Film Festival; a Top Ten Chinese-language Films award at the Hong Kong Film Awards; and the Public Grand Prize at the Festival of Asian Cinema in France in 1999.[5](https://m.fx361.com/news/2010/1231/28209041.html) • [11](https://cpc.people.com.cn/n/2014/0404/c83083-24825114-2.html) Xie Fei has called it the most solid fusion of content and form among his nine features.[12](https://www.jiemian.com/article/3841705.html)
## Themes and place in Xie Fei's career
The film places two women, Xiang and Huanhuan, in a reform-era Chinese village and shows how money, custom, and family structure reproduce the same tragedy across generations: Xiang, herself once sold as a bride, becomes the agent who buys a wife for her son. Commentators have read it as a critique of traditional attitudes that harm women and as an early representative work of Chinese feminist film.[9](https://cn.govopendata.com/renminribao/1993/03/03/8/) • [13](https://www.sohu.com/a/956238851_122355039) Xie Fei, born in Yan'an in 1937 and a leading figure of China's "Fourth Generation" of directors, adapted most of his films from well-known Chinese novels, and the film's success came in a period he describes as the peak of [Chinese art](https://www.edgepedia.org/chinese-art) cinema abroad, alongside *The Story of Qiu Ju* at Venice in 1992 and *Farewell My Concubine* at Cannes in 1993.[14](https://calendar.usc.edu/event/woman_sesame_oil_maker_-_screening_and_qa_with_director_xie_fei) • [12](https://www.jiemian.com/article/3841705.html)
## Restoration
For years, festival screenings relied on low-resolution telecine transfers with under- and over-exposed passages. In 2023 the Xiamen University Audio-Visual Documentation Center, working with iQIYI in a joint restoration laboratory, restored the film from a well-preserved low-fade print supplied by Tianjin Film Studio: 4K frame-by-frame scanning at 16 bits, automated scratch detection with iQIYI's ZoomAI algorithm, manual repair of all 150,876 frames by an eleven-person team, and final color grading under Xie Fei's direction. The 4K version premiered in the Classics Restored section of the 13th Beijing International Film Festival on April 20–22, 2023, with the director attending the first screening, and later streamed on iQIYI.[1](https://film.xmu.edu.cn/info/1151/7995.htm) • [13](https://www.sohu.com/a/956238851_122355039)
## References
1. [厦门大学音像文献中心修复影片《香魂女》成功展映北京国际电影节, Xiamen University Film School](https://film.xmu.edu.cn/info/1151/7995.htm)
2. [Woman Sesame Oil Maker (The Women From The Lake Of Scented Souls) (1993), FilmAffinity](https://www.filmaffinity.com/us/film211017.html)
3. [香魂女 演职员表, 1905电影网](https://m.1905.com/m/film/starlist/60019.shtml)
4. [Woman Sesame Oil Maker (1993), IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108608/)
5. [《香魂女》:美丽表象下的精神盲点, 参考网](https://m.fx361.com/news/2010/1231/28209041.html)
6. [Woman Sesame Oil Maker – 香魂女 (1993), Loving Chinese](https://www.lovingchinese.com/woman-sesame-oil-maker-chinese-moviestv/)
7. [香魂女 详细资料, 1905电影网](https://m.1905.com/m/film/info/60019.shtml)
8. [谢飞：大家一定要尊重作家、编剧和好作品, 人人文学网](https://renrenwenxue.com/m.php?action=article&id=24049&typeid=17)
9. [人民日报 1993年3月3日 第8版](https://cn.govopendata.com/renminribao/1993/03/03/8/)
10. [专访谢飞, 南方周末](https://www.infzm.com/contents/219232?source=124&source_1=219457)
11. [谢飞：一个时代的记忆, 人民网](https://cpc.people.com.cn/n/2014/0404/c83083-24825114-2.html)
12. [专访导演谢飞, 界面新闻](https://www.jiemian.com/article/3841705.html)
13. [《杨君访谈媒体人物》：修复重映的《香魂女》背后故事, 搜狐](https://www.sohu.com/a/956238851_122355039)
14. [Woman Sesame Oil Maker screening and Q&A, USC Event Calendar](https://calendar.usc.edu/event/woman_sesame_oil_maker_-_screening_and_qa_with_director_xie_fei)
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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 › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 1990s › Drama films early 1990s*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license