East Palace, West Palace (1996) on Netflix
In Beijing, a young gay writer named A-Lan wants the attention of a policeman, Xiao Shi. He arranges his own arrest so the officer will interrogate him through the night.
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- Netflix3.7/5
- IMDb6.5/101,379 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes83%
Plot summary
In China homosexuality is not a crime, yet police routinely arrest gay men on charges of hooliganism. A-Lan, a young writer in Beijing, is drawn to a policeman named Xiao Shi. The two parks beside the Forbidden City, the East Palace and the West Palace, are known as places where gay men gather after dark. A-Lan arranges to be taken into custody so that Xiao Shi will question him through one night. In the interrogation room he tells the story of his life, from his youth to the writer he has become, and his account carries the weight of a society that keeps such lives hidden.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about East Palace, West Palace (1996)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Zhang Yuan's East Palace, West Palace was shot in the spring of 1996 and was then smuggled out of China so that its post-production could be done in France.
- Zhang Yuan's 1996 film East Palace, West Palace was the first mainland Chinese movie with an explicitly homosexual theme.
- The film takes its title from two parks near the Forbidden City, the East Palace and the West Palace, whose public washrooms were known as nighttime gathering places for homosexuals.
