Summer Palace | |
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Traditional Chinese | 頤和園 |
Simplified Chinese | 颐和园 |
Hanyu Pinyin | Yíhé Yuán |
Directed by | Lou Ye |
Written by | Lou Ye Mei Feng Ma Yingli |
Produced by | Sylvain Bursztejn Fang Li Nai An |
Starring | Hao Lei Guo Xiaodong |
Cinematography | Hua Qing |
Edited by | Lou Ye Zeng Jian |
Music by | Peyman Yazdanian |
Release date |
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Running time | 140 minutes |
Country | China |
Languages | Mandarin German |
Summer Palace (simplified Chinese: 颐和园; traditional Chinese: 頤和園; pinyin: Yíhé Yuán) is a 2006 Chinese film and the fourth feature film by director Lou Ye. The film was a Chinese-French collaboration produced by Dream Factory, Laurel Films, Fantasy Pictures and Sylvain Bursztejn's Rosem Films. It was made in association with France's Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication, Ministère des Affaires Étrangères and Centre National de la Cinématographie (CNC).
The film deals with a young student played by Hao Lei who leaves her small hometown to study at the fictional "Beiqing University" (an homage to Peking University). There she meets a fellow student and begins an intense romantic relationship in the backdrop of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre. The film also follows the eventual disillusionment of these young idealists after the crackdown, as the years progress through the 1990s and into the 2000s (decade). The film is named after the Summer Palace located in Beijing.
The film is the first from mainland China to feature the full-frontal adult nudity of both its male and female leads,[1] though earlier films such as Xiao Wu (1998),[2] Lan Yu (2001),[3] Green Hat (2003),[4] and Star Appeal (2004),[5] have featured full-frontal adult male nudity.
Summer Palace's sex scenes and political undertones made the film tinder for controversy in China, leading both the director, Lou Ye, and his producers into conflict with China's State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television (SARFT). After screening Summer Palace in the 2006 Cannes Film Festival without government approval, the film was placed under a de facto ban in Mainland China, and its filmmakers officially censored.