Dong gong xi gong (1996)

User Rating:

6.4/10   

Director:

Yuan Zhang

Writers:

Wang Xiaobo (writer)
Yuan Zhang (writer)

Release Date:

24 July 1998 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

In China, homosexuality isn't illegal, but homosexuals are routinely persecuted by police and arrested for "hooliganism"...

Plot Keywords:

Police | Repression | Homosexual | Interrogation | Homosexuality

Awards:

4 wins

Cast

Si Han	...	A Lan
Jun Hu	...	Xiao Shi
Jing Ye
Wei Zhao

Also Known As:

Behind the Forbidden City (USA)
East Palace West Palace (International: English title)

Runtime:

90 min | Canada:94 min | Netherlands:94 min

Country:

China

Language:

Mandarin

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Certification:

Singapore:R(A) | Sweden:15

Company:

Amazon Entertainment Ltd.

Trivia:

In 1997 the Chinese government put director 'Zhang, Yuan' under house arrest and confiscated his passport. His friends smuggled this movie out of the country so it could be shown at the 1997 Cannes film festival.

Excruciatingly boring, dull

I understand this film was banned in China because it deals with homosexuality. I prefer to think that it was banned because it could bore its audiences to death. Basically the story of a frustrated and screwed-up little Chinese queen who falls for a policeman who arrests him for cruising the park, this attempt at a movie is badly directed, incredible badly edited, static to the point of being a series of still pictures at times, with actors who maintain a single expression and have little to make one feel sympathy for them. Good grief... I sat through it though my hand itched to fast-forward to the end of this dreary exercise in movie-making. Skip this one...