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IMDbPro

Summer Palace

Original title: Yi He Yuan
  • 20062006
  • UnratedUnrated
  • 2h 38m
IMDb RATING
7.1/10
3.7K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
22,991
289
Summer Palace (2006)
This is the U.S. theatrical trailer for Summer Palace, directed by Ye Lou.
Play trailer1:44
1 Video
12 Photos
DramaRomance
Yu Hong leaves her home village and starts university in Beijing, where she develops a consuming and compulsive relationship with another student. The student riots from 1989 then ensue and ... Read allYu Hong leaves her home village and starts university in Beijing, where she develops a consuming and compulsive relationship with another student. The student riots from 1989 then ensue and take a toll on their lives.Yu Hong leaves her home village and starts university in Beijing, where she develops a consuming and compulsive relationship with another student. The student riots from 1989 then ensue and take a toll on their lives.
IMDb RATING
7.1/10
3.7K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
22,991
289
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Director
      • Ye Lou
    • Writers
      • Ye Lou
      • Yingli Ma
      • Feng Mei
    • Stars
      • Lei Hao
      • Xiaodong Guo
      • Xueyun Bai
    Top credits
    • Director
      • Ye Lou
    • Writers
      • Ye Lou
      • Yingli Ma
      • Feng Mei
    • Stars
      • Lei Hao
      • Xiaodong Guo
      • Xueyun Bai
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 30User reviews
    • 36Critic reviews
    • 79Metascore
    • Awards
      • 1 nomination

    Videos1

    U.S. trailer: Summer Palace
    Trailer 1:44
    U.S. trailer: Summer Palace

    Photos12

    Summer Palace (2006)
    Summer Palace (2006)
    Summer Palace (2006)
    Lei Hao and Xiaodong Guo in Summer Palace (2006)
    Lei Hao in Summer Palace (2006)
    Lei Hao in Summer Palace (2006)
    Lei Hao in Summer Palace (2006)
    Lei Hao and Xiaodong Guo in Summer Palace (2006)
    Lei Hao in Summer Palace (2006)
    Summer Palace (2006)
    Xueyun Bai and Lei Hao in Summer Palace (2006)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Lei Hao
    Lei Hao
    • Yu Hong
    Xiaodong Guo
    Xiaodong Guo
    • Zhou Wei
    Xueyun Bai
    • Wang Bo
    Lin Cui
    Lin Cui
    • Xiao Jun
    Yihong Duan
    Yihong Duan
    • Tang Caoshi
    • (as Long Duan)
    Yu Hou
    Yu Hou
    Ling Hu
    • Li Ti
    Chi Le
    • Woman
    Chloe Maayan
    Chloe Maayan
    • Dongdong
    Thomas Wingrich
    Thomas Wingrich
    • Thomas
    Xianmin Zhang
    • Ruo Gu
    • Director
      • Ye Lou
    • Writers
      • Ye Lou
      • Yingli Ma
      • Feng Mei
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      In September of 2006, director Lou Ye was barred from making movies for five years because the film incorporated footage of the Tiananmen Square demonstrations and wasn't screened for Chinese officials. The Chinese government also demanded that all copies of the film be confiscated.
    • Goofs
      There were no nightclubs or bars in 1980's Beijing such as the ones portrayed in Summer Palace. Despite the presence of a few underground bars in Beijing at that time, it is highly improbably that any university students would patron such establishments. Moreover, those bars did not play American pop music, did not allow dancing, did not stock western liquor, and certainly did not admit foreigners. Any clubs or bars like the ones shown in Summer Palace did not begin appearing in Beijing until the late 1990s and did not gain popularity amongst middle-class college students until after the new millennium.
    • Quotes

      Yu Hong: I want us to break up.

      Zhou Wei: Why?

      Yu Hong: Because I can't leave you.

    • Connections
      Features The 400 Blows (1959)
    • Soundtracks
      In Yeon
      Performed by Ha Dong-jin

    User reviews30

    Review
    Top review
    10/10
    The naked truth, blemishes included
    "Because it is only when we make love that you understand that I'm gentle."

    That's all the character development I need. This is an ambitious film about the stalled maturation of an idealistic but troubled young woman flanked by the Tiananmen Square protests, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the handover of Hong Kong to mainland China. The film spans a decade and a half from 1987 to 2003 so I guess the misery of Three Gorges Dam couldn't make the final cut. The direction is a little chaotic at times but it reflects the nature of the film and doesn't come off as too much of a liability. The soundtrack is impeccably chosen and the film is ultimately very sad. I was glued to this 140 minute masterpiece. Politics aside, and they are on the side, this is a remarkable film in its honest portrayal of failure, not of personal character necessarily, but of circumstance.

    This is another film that got its director and producer banned for five years from making films in China. Maybe it's the full-frontal nudity or the sheer quantity of sex scenes but I don't see the need for hubbub. The film is about a woman's self-reflection on why she finds comfort in the arms of different men. We see her naked inside and out. She is afraid to love out of fear, fear of something she hasn't yet experienced, but isn't that the scariest kind of fear?

    There are a number of things wrong with the film, perhaps, but very little could be done to improve it. Great films succeed in spite of their weaknesses. I'm not a fan of off camera narration but it works for me here. It seems additional rather than necessary. There is a maturity to the woman's voice as she narrates with entries from her diary that compliment, do not seem at odds with, the can't quite grow up activities of the woman on screen. In order to get from the Berlin Wall to the Hong Kong Handover, 1989 to 1997, we're treated to narrative on screen text to fill us in on what's happening to the characters. Ordinarily that would be a deal breaker for me, in theory at least, but again, it works. Finally, as if this were a real story about real people, after the final denouement occurs we're given updates on what happened or didn't happen to the principle characters. Frankly, as gut-wrenchingly sad but true as the final scene is I wish it would have just faded to black. But I think it's a tribute to the strength of the characters that I found myself intrigued by the postscript.

    Having said that, I think one could argue that from a strictly script perspective a little more fleshing out was in order ... and I don't mean that full-frontally. I think it comes down to this: if you've ever known passionate, poetic, misguided people, you know these people right away. They're part beautiful and part brutal, there's no talking them out of it. That's the point. This film doesn't set out to explain, diagnose, or change its characters. It just wants to show them to you in all their painful glory, and I think it does a very good job of it. Then again, maybe it's just a case of been there, done that.
    helpful•7
    2
    • sitenoise
    • May 6, 2009

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • April 18, 2007 (France)
    • Countries of origin
      • China
      • France
    • Official sites
      • Océan Films (France)
      • Productor's official site
    • Languages
      • Mandarin
      • German
    • Also known as
      • 頤和園
    • Filming locations
      • Beijing, China
    • Production companies
      • Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée (CNC)
      • Dream Factory
      • Flying Moon Filmproduktion
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $2,500,000 (estimated)
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $63,045
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $8,717
      • Jan 20, 2008
    • Gross worldwide
      • $143,027
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      2 hours 38 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

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