East Palace West Palace

Rating:
Summary: Interesting story of repression of gays in China
Review: "Dong gong xi gong (East Palace West Palace)" (1996; also released under the title "Behind the Forbidden City" in 1998) is a rather unique story about the overnight detention of a young gay Chinese man, A Lan, who was caught having sex with a man in a park near the Forbidden Palace in Beijing. Although homosexuality was not actually illegal during the time in which the film is set, gays in that country were routinely harrassed by the police, who could detain and arrest them for "hooliganism". The film unreels as A Lan tells his captor, a young park policeman named Xiao Shi, about his life, including his gradual realization that he was gay, and his experiences and yearnings. He reveals that he is married, which makes him a bit of an outcast among his other gay friends who gather at the park. His childhood recollections somewhat explain why he has a particular fascination to big, male authority figures who treat him badly, including his police captor. The policeman, who consistently called A Lan "disgusting" and worthy of shame, is also fighting his own fascination with the boy's story, and his growing attraction to him as well.

From what I have read in a couple of other reviews, the film has considerable political relevance in that it was the first Chinese film to criticize the government's hypocritical treatment of homosexuals. The film's director was reportedly arrested in 1997, and it is only because of friends' actions that the film was smuggled out of the country, where it was featured at the Cannes film festival. Obviously, I can't comment or judge based on political or cultural relevance, but the story itself is intriguing, the cinematography and direction excellent, and I was especially intrigued with Si Han, the young actor who played A Lan, who probably had constant, dramatic dialogue during 60 of the film's 94 minutes...

Rating:
Summary: An excellent film
Review: Beautifully made and mesmerizing film. Very sensuous, satisfying and somewhat poetic. Two leading actors are superb. In many ways, the film is a masterpiece.

Rating:
Summary: Disapointing
Review: It's not a terrible movie but some mistakes mar it. The captive character being a writer seems to give the script the necessary license to stop making sense from time to time. I guess these are the 'poetic' parts other people point out. Well, I think this device takes the audience out of the movie, makes it boring and strains believability, but of course that's only my taste. I was looking to a more claustrophobic and intense experience. Also the police-man character is quite monotonous.
The dvd has a quite good 1.66 non-anamorphic transfer.