Summer Palace Reviews
February 14, 2021
The repeated and explicit sex scenes may represent the breaking of some taboo in China, but they are pointless and dull.
June 17, 2013
The supporting cast is uniformly fine and excels at creating an emotional spectrum appropriate to the wildly variegated tonalities of Summer Palace's very realistic milieu.
November 18, 2011
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
November 17, 2011
Original Score: 3/5
September 7, 2011
Full Review
| Original Score: B-
July 22, 2008
Now I don't mind movies that have the pace of a snail, but nothing freakin' happens in this movie. Nothing!
Original Score: 1/4
March 21, 2008
Though made in 2006, its American release could not have been better timed.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
March 21, 2008
It can overwhelm you and puzzle and repel you, sometimes within moments.
Full Review
| Original Score: B
March 13, 2008
It benefits from a riveting performance by newcomer Hao, but the whole is sadly unsatisfying.
March 12, 2008
It falls apart just when it was starting to pull itself together.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/5
March 10, 2008
The saying goes "There's a time and a place for everything, and it's called college." Who knew that included actually caring about something?
Original Score: 3.5/5
February 29, 2008
Search out this vivid film in a theater. Don't let the sacrifices he [Director Lou Ye] made be in vain.
Full Review
| Original Score: 5/5
February 29, 2008
Mopey-soapy as it sometimes gets, though, this is intelligent, passionate stuff.
February 28, 2008
Like a Tolstoyan epic.
January 28, 2008
Set against the tumultuous year of 1989, this vividly colorful melodrama of Chinese youth's sex and politics links the initimate and personal with the broader social forces in intriguing, fascinating ways.
Full Review
| Original Score: B+
January 24, 2008
Despite its problems, Summer Palace is still a good film thanks to [its] sweep-away moments.
January 22, 2008
The film becomes less and less involving as it spins out its excessive 140-minute running time.
January 18, 2008
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
| Original Score: 3/4
January 18, 2008
Lou Ye's Summer Palace examines youthful idealism and its unhappy aftermath.
Original Score: 3.5/5
January 17, 2008
In Yu Hong (Hao Lei), the film also has a vibrant heroine.
Original Score: 3/4