China, 1989. Two young lovers play out their complex, erotic, love/hate relationship against a volatile backdrop of political unrest. Beautiful country girl Yu Hong (Hao Lei) leaves her village, family and lover to study at Beijing University, where she discovers a world of sexual freedom. When she falls in love with fellow student Zhou Wei (Guo Xiaodong), their relationship, driven by passions neither one can understand nor control, becomes one of dangerous games - betrayals, recriminations, provocations - as all around them, students begin to demonstrate, demanding freedom and democracy. As the protests collapse, Yu and Zhou lose each other amidst the social chaos and panicked crowds. Zhou is sent to a summer military camp, and moves to Berlin upon his release, fleeing his country and memories of Yu. In Germany, social unrest is mounting too; as the Berlin wall crashes down, Zhou, weary and still haunted by Yu, returns to China and finds her living in a small town. With their uncertain future stretched out before them, they are two changed souls in a changed world. Will they survive together or alone? |||| Summer Palace's explicit sex scenes and political undertones has made it a touchstone for controversy in China, leading both the director, Lou Ye, and his producers, into conflict with China's State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television (SARFT). After screening Summer Palace in the 2006 Cannes Film Festival without government approval, the film was banned, and its filmmakers censured.

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