Review of Summer Palace (2006) by X. T — 05 Aug 2008

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 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".