Spring Fever

Lou Ye’s daring Spring Fever starts and ends with the picture of a flower as it opens. The film tells the story of a passionate homosexual relationship between the married intellectual Wang Ping and the transvestite Jiang Cheng. The film is daring because explicit images of homosexual love are still sensitive in China. The Chinese authorities banned the director from making films in China for five years after Ye is alleged to have adopted a too-political standpoint in his previous film, Summer Palace (2006). Also the form of Spring Fever, shot illegally in China, is daring. Spring Fever uses Impressionist images and wild editing to create a sultry atmosphere, as can only exist in the springtime. Wang still loves his wife, but he doesn't know that she is having him spied on. ‘One night very drunk from the spring wind’ is the Chinese title. That can only end up in tragedy.