Summer Palace (traditional Chinese: 頤和園; simplified Chinese: 颐和园; pinyin: Yíhé Yuán), is a 2006 film and the fourth feature film by director Lou Ye. The film was a Chinese-French collaboration produced by Dream Factory, Laurel Films, Fantasy Pictures and Sylvain Bursztejn's Rosem Films. It was made in association with France's Ministere de la Culture & de la Communication, Ministere des Affaires Etrangeres and Centre National de la Cinématographie (CNC).
The film deals with young student played by Hao Lei who leaves her small hometown to study at the fictional "Beiqing University" (an homage to Peking University). There she meets a fellow student and begins an intense romantic relationship in the backdrop of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. The film also follows the eventual disillusionment of these young idealists after the crackdown, as the years progress through the 1990s and into the 2000s. The film is named after the Summer Palace located in Beijing.
Summer Palace's explicit sex scenes and political undertones made the film 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 de facto banned in Mainland China, and its filmmakers officially censured.