East Palace, West Palace
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DVD Details
- Rated: Unrated
- Run Time: 1 hours, 30 minutes
- Video: Color
- Encoding: Region 1 (USA & Canada)
- Released: February 20, 2004
- Originally Released: 1997
- Label: Strand Home Video
Performers, Cast and Crew:
Starring | Si Han & Hu Jun | |
Directed by | Yuan Zhang | |
Edited by | Vincent Levy | |
Screenwriting by | Wang Xiaobo & Yuan Zhang | |
Composition by | Xiang Min | |
Produced by | Christophe Jung | |
Director of Photography: | Jian Zhang |
Entertainment Reviews:
60%
TOMATOMETER
...Arguably the most compelling new Chinese film since the rise of the Fifth Generation...
Box Office
...Stunning....The film is every bit as bold and daring as its making....EAST PALACE, WEST PALACE is a richly cinematic experience...
Los Angeles Times
...A splendidly acted film....Mr. Zhang mingles powerful drama and courageous politics...
New York Times
Product Description:
China's rebellious and incessantly audacious Yuan Zhang delves into the secret world of illicit homosexuality in his devastatingly erotic and politically astute film, EAST PALACE, WEST PALACE. Immediately banned by the Chinese government, the film follows the young gay writer, A-Lan, as he drifts in and out of China's hidden homosexual haunts, where he is beaten, humiliated and harassed along with other gays. When a handsome policeman busts him for "cruising" the grounds of the Forbidden Palace, A-lan starts to see his behavior as a dangerous obsession. When he is caught by the officer a second time, A-lan undergoes a loaded overnight interrogation laced with barely sublimated erotic tension in which he talks about his life as a homosexual to the enraptured officer. As A-lan describes the sometimes tortuous conditions of being gay in China, which he proudly proclaims "make life worth living," the master and servant relationship slowly evolves into one of curious attraction and fear. Zhang slyly uses the chamber drama taking place between A-lan and the officer to create a stunning metaphor for the sado-masochistic relation that Chinese people have with their own authority figures. As the drama is played out, Alan's dreamlike, tragedy-laced past mingles with symbolic images from Chinese opera. Each of A-lan's stories deftly seduces the officer and further illuminates A-lan's complex hidden courage.