Summer Palace

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Summer Palace ★★★ Yihe Yuan 2006

The lives of Yu Hong (Hao) and her lover Zhou Wei (Guo)are traced from their enrollment in Bejing University in 1988 and subsequently involvement in the demonstrations in Tiananmen Square, into adulthood, which never seems to match the promise of their youth. Frank and explicit in both its sexuality and its examination of the changes China has undergone since 1989. Director Ye was banned from filmmaking for five years by the Chinese government after showing this at Cannes without permission. 140m/C DVD . CH FR Lei Hao, Xiaodong Guo, Ling Hu, Xianmin Zhang; D: Ye Lou; W: Ye Lou, Mei Feng, The Range Busters; C: Qing Hua; M: Peyman Yazdanian.