In the past two decades, laser scanning confocal microscope has been the standard tool for observing the process of life at cellular and sub-cellular level. The optical sectioning capacity of pinhole-based confocal microscope comes at the price of unwanted excitation of fluorophores out of focal plane and phototoxic damage to biological samples. As a new type of fluorescent microscope, light-sheet fluorescence microscope (LSFM) uses side illumination to conduct surface imaging of the samples directly. As compared to the point-scanning imaging mode, LSFM excels at its imaging speed, which is much higher than that of laser scanning confocal microscope, thus making it possible to study some high-speed fine life activities. Another advantage of the light-sheet fluorescence microscope is that only the sample at the light-sheet is excited and the sample outside the light-sheet is not excited, so there is less phototoxic dosage and we can observe the sample in a longer time scale. The special illumination and imaging mode of the light-sheet fluorescence microscope make it play an irreplaceable role in three-dimensional high-speed imaging of big biological samples. The history and research status of light-sheet fluorescence microscope are reviewed with the purpose of providing a personal perspective of current situation and future direction of LSFM.