Review of Summer Palace (2006) by Benjamin F — 15 Mar 2008

A good, but fairly mixed film from director Lou Ye. Summer Palace tells a tale that mixes slice of life, to a degree, with relationship drama and some political elements, telling a specifically generational story about a group of friends in college at Beijing University in the late 1980s.

The political elements are there less to make a point - even the Tiananmen Square scene is rather underplayed - and more to show the sorts of experiences college students at the time had. Sexuality plays a fairly major part of the character study at the core of the film.

Lei Hao is impressive as the lead Yu Hong, by far the emotional core of the film and best developed character. Her long term love, Zhou Wei - played by Xiaodong Guo - is fairly developed, at least to the point at which the viewer can get into his head a bit and sympathize with him as well.

But most of the supporting cast beyond them, while interesting, doesn't get their due, largely because in the grand scheme of the film, they're important. Of all of them, however, not properly developing Li Ti was the biggest mistake, considering the turns her character takes.

Aside from that, the film is overly long, but it has a solid soundtrack - if not a little overdramatic at times - and the direction and cinematography are good as well. In the final act, the film effectively crumples, but after all the build-up, it was practically to be expected, being very much a work of Chinese cinema.

Overall, the film pulls you into its setting and story compellingly, and while it certainly has its flaws that shouldn't be overlooked, its central couple's story still strikes a chord and is certainly worth experiencing in all of its heartbreaking honesty and pain.

A very tragic portrait of love in modern China.