Two taboos broken in the "Summer Palace"

Mad love affairs along with sexual experiementations, Tiananmen Square in June 4th, 1989, two taboos that are not allowed to be subjects of public discussion and debate in China, are two highlights in the Chinese movie, "Summer Palace" (颐和园), selected to show in the ongoing Cannese Movie Festival.

The two and half hour movie, is about a chinese young educated woman's journey to love and freedom. From a remote area bordering North Korea, Hong Yu came to study in Beijing, the nation's capital.

The two are compelled to jeopardize this love with dangerous games of sexual experimentation and one-upmanship. These sexual freedoms, the film implies, spill over into political unrest and demands for freedom and democracy. As students flock to the square in 1989 and flout social order, the film and the relationships of Yu, her lover, her girlfriend Li Ti (Hu Lingling) and her boyfriend Ruo Gu (Zhang Xianmin) boil over.

(Reuters)

After the initial showing in the Cannes, the "Summer Palace" received mixed response. Some critized it as long and overstreching, some hailed it as Chinese verson of Gone with the Wind.

While in China, the movie has been sent to the Cannes without approval of Chinese authority, Director Lou Ye said, he felt the movie belongs to everyone, and to make it more possible to be showing in China, he is willing to make any changes.