Yihe yuan (Summer Palace) poster & wallpaper
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Lei Hao, Xiaodong Guo, Hu Ling, Xueyun Bai, Cui Lin ... see more see more... , Duan Long , Xianmin Zhang , Chi Le , Lin Cui , Ling Hu , Long Duan

A romance takes place against some of the most turbulent events in recent Chinese history in this epic-scale story from filmmaker Lou Ye. Yu Hong (Hao Lei) is a beautiful 17-year-old girl who is soon ... read more read more...to leave the small border town where she was born and raised to attend college at Beijing University. Shortly before Yu Hong leaves for school, she gives her virginity to her longtime boyfriend, Xiao, and pledges to remain faithful to him. At Beijing University, Yu Hong makes friends with Li Ti (Hu Ling), another girl dealing with a long-distance relationship, and meets Zhou Wei (Guo Xiaodong), a handsome student who soon steals her heart. Yu Hong leaves her relationship with Xiao behind to commit herself to Zhou Wei, and she's swept up by her feelings for him as they embrace the new social and economic freedoms which are being felt on campus. The empowerment felt by the students in Beijing comes to a head during a series of demonstrations in Tiananmen Square; the protests have tragic consequences, and the excitement of new possibilities gives way to a feeling of defeat. Yu Hong and Zhou Wei are separated and the heavy hand of the state is brought to bear on the rebellious students. The first Chinese film to feature full-frontal male and female nudity, Yiheyuan (aka Summer Palace) received its world premiere as an official selection at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Flixster Users

60% liked it

1,640 ratings

Critics

71% liked it

31 critics

Unrated, 2 hr. 20 min.

Directed by: Ye Lou

Release Date: October 10, 2006

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DVD Release Date: March 11, 2008

Stats: 161 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (161)

  • bbcfloridabound
    August 16, 2008
    bbcfloridabound
    Even thought I am rating this a 3 Star, its still a pretty good flix, more of a chick flix, about a young lady in china, and the movie is made from her diary. Some Nudity, so those girls under 18 hide your eyes, yea right, if you enjoy this one let me hear from you. bbcfloridabou... read morend@yahoo.com
  • gator681
    January 21, 2008
    gator681
    [font=Century Gothic]"Summer Palace" starts in 1987 with Yu Hong(Lei Huo) who lives near the North Korean border being accepted[/font] [font=Century Gothic]to Beijing University where she does not exactly fit in. Sensing her loneliness, Li Ti(Ling Hu) befriends her, saying most ... read morepeople think either she has had her heart broken or she is a lesbian(Well...) Li Ti even goes further, introducing her to her boyfriend, Ruo Gu(Xianmin Zhang), and their mutual friend, Zhou Wei(Xiaodong Guo).[/font]
    [font=Century Gothic][/font]
    [font=Century Gothic]When "From Here to Eternity" starts in Hawaii 1941, it is immensely clear where the movie is heading and what the climax will be. In "Summer Palace," there is a similar sense of foreboding concerning the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989(Which does seem like it might have been a seminal year but not when you are living through it.) but here it is anticlimax. After that event, the movie skips ahead to 1997 before finally coming to a halt in 2001.(The movie might have had a chance if it had been less linear.) While it does seem to go on forever, it also gets the college experience just right(That beng said, I am just grateful I never had to use a bedpan) but I do not remember that much sex in college.(Well, I am glad at least somebody was getting some.) And at this quantity and explicitness, it does get very tedious quickly. [/font]
    [font=Century Gothic][/font]
    [font=Century Gothic]Considering the setting, "Summer Palace" is strangely devoid of politics which trivializes the student activism of the time and place. For example, there is a scene where there is a political meeting but a character simply says it is boring and that is it.(Which reminds me why I love Ken Loach so much...) No matter where you go, college is a staging area where students are introduced to a panoply of ideas. In conclusion, education does not end at graduation but the movie should have been over by then.[/font]
  • mvieaddict
    April 2, 2010
    mvieaddict
    Summer Palace a Chinese movie that caught my attention from the moment it started on my screen.A young girl encountered her first experiences with love and sex. The movie showed huge changes China was undergoing in the mid-eighties.She was excepted at university in Beijing and me... read moret a guy who she fell madly in love with.The acting directing, editing,photography all was very breathtaking. The story was heartbreaking as we followed these 2 student during the protests and how they lost sight of each other and lived separate lives.Sex was an important part of the movie, since it expressed passion, but still it did not have a happy ending and it had a message that you have to discover by thinking and feeling the movie.
  • columbiatch
    August 6, 2008
    columbiatch
    Not as ambitious as its story might suggest, this film about a group (maybe a generation) of college students who witnessed the Tiananmen massacre. It's filtered through a young woman and her relationship with another student along with their ups and downs. The film's second half... read more fast forwards several years after the incident as to show the aimless and disillusioned lives these people led. The biggest fault of this was that the characters are so poorly fleshed out that by the time the film ends there is nothing but vague understanding of theses people despite all the heartbreaks and trauma they are made to suffer. The sex scenes, no matter how passionate or controversial, don't supply anything interesting things to say about the characters. It's as if the director simply stuck to the tried and true formula of "controversial/taboo historical topic + explicit sex = government ban = international interest and distribution".

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Critic Reviews

G. Allen Johnson
March 21, 2008
G. Allen Johnson, San Francisco Chronicle

Though made in 2006, its American release could not have been better timed. Full Review

Kenneth Turan
February 29, 2008
Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times

Search out this vivid film in a theater. Don't let the sacrifices he [Director Lou Ye] made be in vain. Full Review

V.A. Musetto
January 18, 2008
V.A. Musetto, New York Post

I still must recommend Summer Palace, especially for the remarkably strong performance by Hao Lei as Yu Hong, the daughter of a shopkeeper in the provinces. Full Review

A.O. Scott
January 18, 2008
A.O. Scott, New York Times

Lou Ye's Summer Palace examines youthful idealism and its unhappy aftermath.

John Anderson
January 17, 2008
John Anderson, Newsday

In Yu Hong (Hao Lei), the film also has a vibrant heroine. Full Review

Julia Wallace
January 15, 2008
Julia Wallace, Village Voice

Combines flashes of insight and scintillating cinematography -- grainy, fumbling, light-blinded -- with stretches of inscrutable mediocrity. Full Review

David Denby
January 14, 2008
David Denby, New Yorker

In truth, I've never seen so much lovemaking in an aboveground film, but the revelation, and great triumph, of Lou's work is that these scenes are never pornographic -- that is, never separated from e... Full Review

Derek Elley
May 18, 2006
Derek Elley, Variety

An occasionally involving but way over-stretched tapestry. Full Review

Kirk Honeycutt
May 18, 2006
Kirk Honeycutt, Hollywood Reporter

Lou has created a remarkable portrait of a headstrong woman and a generation of Chinese that still finds itself at a crossroads in that country's history.

Austin Kennedy
July 22, 2008
Austin Kennedy, Sin Magazine

Now I don't mind movies that have the pace of a snail, but nothing freakin' happens in this movie. Nothing!

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