Cannes 2009: "Spring Fever."
Lou Ye was banned from making films for five years by the Chinese government after "Summer Palace" screened at Cannes in 2006 without their approval. Which means it's some sort of act of defiance and bravery, sure, for him to have since then made "Spring Fever," which this year premieres in competition. But the film is pure soap opera under the scarcest sheen of something higher, a love pentagon set in neon-and-concrete Nanjing. Jiang Cheng (Qin Hao) is its central tragic gay, subject to various emotional and physical beatings, who when things begin is traveling with his married lover to a rural trysting spot. The man's wife suspects him of cheating and hires the aimless Luo Haitao (Chen Sicheng) to spy on the two. When the situation unavoidably implodes, Jiang Cheng tries to heal his broken heart by moving on to a whole new ill-advised relationship with a man already...
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