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Summer Place

Written by Nobuhiro Hosoki

 

After Director Lou Ye's "Summer Place" captivated audiences at the 2006 Cannes Festival, he was banned from making film in his homeland for five years. The film chronicles the life of a vibrant heroine, Yu Long (Lei Hao), whose sexual passion is set against the chaotic backdrop of college protest at the Tiananmen Square in 1989. The film follows her life through 2001, when she has become a liberated businesswoman.

By 2001, Yu is living with her father in a small town in the countryside in China. One day, her life changes significantly when she is accepted into Bejing University. There, she immerses herself into a world of liberated sex and liberating politics. Soon she develops a half dozen loyal friends, one of whom is Zhou Wei (Xiaodong Guo). She falls in love with him Occasionally, they hang around with Li Ti (Ling Hu) and her boyfriend Ruo Gu (Xianmin Zhang), who has studied in Berlin.

Yu devours love as if there's no tomorrow, adding the dilemma of pleasure and pain to their passionate affair. The film explores how fragile and strong an intimate relationship can be. But eventually, Yu tells Zhou that she wants to break up with him. When he asks for a reason, she simply responds, "Because I can't leave you." Even when their ardor cools off, the power of their affair haunts them for a long time.

Zhou Wei eventually exiles himself to Europe and joins Li Ti and Ruo Gu in Berlin. Yu slowly realizes that sex can be the only part of a relationship that enables her to become a nakedly gentle soul, dragging herself into an unfulfilling love affair with a married man. Some years later, fate draws Yu Hong and Wei Zhou together once more time, though they have no clue as to what will happen when they meet again.

Director Lou Ye sets a tumultuous love affair in the mirror of the changes going on China; even though the film contains explicit sex, and certain revelation, those scenes are never distasteful. Always engaged in emotion with some lyrical elements, capturing great insight into the human condition. actress Lei Hao embodies a complex and neurotic character of a young woman that is believable in many aspects. In the end, their ardor haunts us in the memorable "Summer Place."

Directed by Lou Ye
Written by Mr. Lou, Feng Mei and Ma Yingl
Director of photography: Qing Hua
Edited by Mr. Lou and Jian Zeng
Music by Peyman Yazdania
Production designer:Weixin Liu
Produced by Sylvain Bursztein, Li Fang, Mr. Lou and An Na
Released by Palm Pictures.
Running time: 2 hours 20 minutes.

Cast: Xiaodong Guo (Zhou Wei)
Lei Hao (Yu Hong)
Xueyun Bai (Wang Bo)
Lin Cui (Xiao Jun)
Long Duan (Tang Caoshi),
and Ling Hu (Li Ti).