The repeated and explicit sex scenes may represent the breaking of some taboo in China, but they are pointless and dull.

| Feb 14, 2021

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.

| Jun 17, 2013

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 18, 2011

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 17, 2011

| Original Score: B- | Sep 7, 2011

Now I don't mind movies that have the pace of a snail, but nothing freakin' happens in this movie. Nothing!

Full Review | Original Score: 1/4 | Jul 22, 2008

Though made in 2006, its American release could not have been better timed.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 21, 2008

It can overwhelm you and puzzle and repel you, sometimes within moments.

| Original Score: B | Mar 21, 2008

It benefits from a riveting performance by newcomer Hao, but the whole is sadly unsatisfying.

Full Review | Mar 13, 2008

It falls apart just when it was starting to pull itself together.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Mar 12, 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?

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Mar 10, 2008

Search out this vivid film in a theater. Don't let the sacrifices he [Director Lou Ye] made be in vain.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Feb 29, 2008

Mopey-soapy as it sometimes gets, though, this is intelligent, passionate stuff.

Full Review | Feb 29, 2008

Like a Tolstoyan epic.

| Feb 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.

| Original Score: B+ | Jan 28, 2008

Despite its problems, Summer Palace is still a good film thanks to [its] sweep-away moments.

| Jan 24, 2008

The film becomes less and less involving as it spins out its excessive 140-minute running time.

| Jan 22, 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.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 18, 2008

Lou Ye's Summer Palace examines youthful idealism and its unhappy aftermath.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jan 18, 2008

In Yu Hong (Hao Lei), the film also has a vibrant heroine.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 17, 2008