movielex
movie
L
ex

Movies like Summer Palace

Key Features:
Student life, Political unrest, Forbidden love, University setting, Historical drama, Relationship drama, Tragic romance, Social commentary
Tone:
serious, dramatic
Target Audience:
Drama enthusiasts, Arthouse aficionados, International cinema viewers
Emotional Arc:
Passion → Disillusionment

Summer Palace

2006-05-18
Summer Palace Poster - Find Similar Movies

Yu Hong leaves her home village and starts university in Beijing, where she develops a consuming and compulsive relationship with another student. The student riots from 1989 then ensue and take a toll on their lives.

Genres
Drama, Romance
Cast
Hao Lei, Guo Xiaodong, Hu Ling, Zhang Xianmin, Cui Lin, Chloe Maayan, Bai Xueyun, Duan Yihong
Crew
Lou Ye, Mei Feng, Lou Ye, Ma Yingli
Rating
7.288(106 votes)
Summer PalaceSummer Palace
Select exactly what you are looking for


Lan Yu
Lan Yu(2001)
6.9

A love story between a country boy in Beijing to study and a wealthy businessman set against the backdrop of the 1989 Tiananmen Square incident.



Summertime
6.7

In 1971, a young woman moves from the French countryside to Paris and begins a passionate love affair with a feminist leader.



So Young
So Young(2013)
6.167

Although new friendships and new love await her, a college freshman discovers that university life is not as simple as she had hoped.



The Banquet
6.1

Crown Prince Wu Luan is in love with Little Wan but left heartbroken when she marries his father, the emperor. The emperor's brother, Li, kills him and Wu Luan tries to avenge his father's death.



Farewell My Concubine

Two boys meet at an opera training school in Peking in 1924. Their resulting friendship will span nearly 70 years and endure some of the most troublesome times in China's history.



So Young 2: Never Gone

A wealthy young man pursues a young woman of modest means, but circumstances often separate them as the years pass.



Under the Hawthorn Tree

The daughter of a right-winger, schoolgirl Jing Qiu is sent to the countryside for reeducation, and tasked to help write a textbook. There she meets Lao San, a young soldier with a bright future ahead. Despite the class divide and parental disapproval, romance blooms against turbulent times.



The Chinese Botanist's Daughters

At the house of a famous Chinese botanist teacher his daughter and a female intern fall in love with each other - a forbidden love that must be kept secret.



Eternal Summer
6.1

Three high school students experience the perks and pitfalls of love in director Leste Chen’s sensitive tale of friendship and yearning.



Youth
Youth(2017)
7.29

A group of performing art troupe members each face their own trials and tribulations in Chengdu; from escaping a family scandal to dealing with unrequited love, each experiences rejection that shapes their lives.



Ju Dou
Ju Dou(1990)
7.1

A woman married to the brutal and infertile owner of a dye mill in rural China conceives a boy with her husband's nephew but is forced to raise her son as her husband's heir without revealing his parentage in this circular tragedy. Filmed in glowing technicolour, this tale of romantic and familial love in the face of unbreakable tradition is more universal than its setting.



SoulMate
SoulMate(2016)
7.149

The films spans two decades as the story unfolds in a series of flashbacks that begin when Qiyue and Ansheng were just thirteen. The two became inseparable until they met a boy who ended up tearing their lives apart.



Royalteen
Royalteen(2022)
5.827

A teenager struggles to keep her scandal-ridden past and a big secret from getting out when she strikes up an unlikely romance with the crown prince.



Hibiscus Town
7.855

Based on a novel by the same name written by Gu Hua, a melodrama about the life and travails of a young woman who lives through the turmoil of the Cultural Revolution.



Lost in Beijing
6.5

A look at modern-day life in China's capital centered on a ménage-a-quatre involving a young woman, her boss, her husband and her boss's wife.



In the Heat of the Sun

Beijing, 1970s. The Cultural Revolution has driven most adults to the provinces leaving 14-year-old Monkey and his pals have free reign over the city. They hang around, get up to no good, and discover that unsolvable mystery known as "girls."



Kingdoms
Kingdoms(2018)
6.365

Alejandro, a freshman, and Sofia, who’s doing her thesis, meet in college. They build an asymmetrical relationship: he’s in love while she just wants to see her sexual desires fulfilled.



Eungyo
Eungyo(2012)
6.8

A reclusive elderly poet feels the fire of his youth when gamine schoolgirl Eun-gyo enters his life, to the chagrin of the old man's assistant.



Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing

A widowed doctor of both Chinese and European descent falls in love with a married American correspondent in Hong Kong during China's Communist revolution.



Anita, Swedish Nymphet

Anita, a young woman with a troubled childhood and a hunger for love, finds a soul mate in Erik, a kindly college student.



Chinese Odyssey 2002

Two pairs of siblings are destined for each other, but fate throws countless obstacles in the path. When the young Emperor and his sister contrive to leave the palace, they meet the loves of their lives in the town of Meilong.



A Summer Place
6.5

A self-made businessman rekindles a romance with a former flame while their two teenage children begin a romance of their own with drastic consequences for both couples.



An Autumn's Tale
7.3

Hong Kong native Lee Kay moves to NYC's Chinatown while attending college. When she learns that her boyfriend's cheating, her cousin comforts her.



The Student
5.857

An ambitious teaching student's finals studies are interrupted by a passionate affair with a jazz musician.



Coming Home
7.253

Lu and Feng are a devoted couple forced to separate when Lu is arrested and sent to a labor camp as a political prisoner during the Cultural Revolution. He finally returns home only to find that his beloved wife no longer remembers him.



The Black Devil and the White Prince

Yū Akahane moves to a dormitory room after her father's transfer from work. She is excited that she will live in the same dorm as Takumi Shirakawa, aka "White Prince." Yet, Haruto Kurosaki, aka "Black Devil", kisses her as punishment for going against him. It is Yū Akahane's first kiss. Since then, she becomes obedient to Haruto Kurosaki.



Carmen & Lola
6.969

Carmen is a gypsy teenager, destined to live a life that is repeated every generation: getting married and raising as many children as possible. But one day she meets Lola, an uncommon gypsy who dreams about going to university, does graffiti and is very different. Carmen quickly develops a complicity with Lola and discovers a world that, inevitably, leads them to be rejected by their families.



Summer with Monika
7.304

One summer day, two teens begin a reckless affair and abandon their families to be with one another.



One Second
7.3

A movie fan escapes from a labour camp during the Chinese Cultural Revolution and strikes up a relationship with a homeless female vagabond.



The Concubine
5.9

Living a torturous life of poverty and barely able to survive, Hwa-yeon decides to offer herself as one of the king’s concubines. Once inside the royal palace, two men are immediately seized by the woman - the Grand Prince Seong-won, a megalomaniacal ruler drunk with power and lust, and Kwon-yoo, who has everything to lose if his desire for Hwa-yeon is exposed.



A Frozen Flower
6.9

A historical drama set in the Koryo dynasty and focused on the relationship between a king and his bodyguard.



Red
Red(2020)
4.7

A married woman with a lovely daughter lives a carefree life, until she meets her ex-lover at a friend’s wedding. They haven’t seen each other in ten years, but they begin an affair.



Endless Love
6.908

A privileged girl and a charismatic boy's instant desire sparks a love affair made only more reckless by parents trying to keep them apart.



A Room in Town
6.4

Set against the backdrop of an increasingly violent strike, a worker falls in love with the middle-class daughter of his landlady.



Felicity
Felicity(1978)
5.7

Young Felicity lives in a monastic school. The only way to live out her sexual fantasies is together with her girlfriend Jenny. But then she receives an invitation to her sister in Hong-Kong and can't wait to finally do the real thing.



Water and Fire
7.9

A pretty young girl falls for an enigmatic, shy man who sweeps her off her feet. She becomes pregnant but is not allowed to tell him. His advisers are adamant. Back home, they have set up a wedding with the daughter of an antagonistic family and marriage will put an end to the blood feud between them.



The Forbidden City
7.081

In the suburbs of Rome two very different souls intersect. One is the son of a restaurant owner who disappeared with his lover. The other is a young mysterious woman who has arrived from China in search of her missing sister.



Princess Yang Kwei-fei

In eighth century China, the Emperor is grieving over the death of his wife. The Yang family wants to provide the Emperor with a consort so that they may consolidate their influence over the court. General An Lushan finds a distant relative working in their kitchen whom they groom to present to the Emperor. The Emperor falls in love with her and she becomes the Princess Yang Kwei-fei. The Yangs are then appointed important ministers, though An Lushan is not given the court position he covets. The ministers misuse their power so much that there is a popular revolt against the Yangs, fueled by An Lushan.



My Rainy Days
7.4

Because of her past, 17-year-old Rio lives her days filling the emptiness in her heart with money—until one day, she meets a university professor named Kouki and falls in love.



Hotarubi no Mori e
8.269

One hot summer day a little girl gets lost in an enchanted forest of the mountain god where spirits reside. A young boy appears before her, but she cannot touch him for fear of making him disappear. And so a wondrous adventure awaits...



Bihter: A Forbidden Passion

Bihter, who is desperate for love, sees Adnan, a wealthy and respected older guy, as a way out of the stereotype that society and her materialistic mother have given her. But she soon discovers that she is not satisfied with his attention and has other needs.



Ride or Die
6.683

Rei helps the woman she's been in love with for years escape her abusive husband. While on the run, their feelings for each other catch fire.



Heavenly Forest
7.538

Amateur photographer Makoto and the homely but endearing Shizuru meet during their university entrance ceremony and become instant friends. Shy by nature, Makoto finds himself opening up around Shizuru, who is secretly in love with him.



Summer in Berlin
6.2

An intimate study of two women friends who come to each other because of troubles with everyday life and with men and thus try to enjoy a life based on their ideas.



Fiore
Fiore(2016)
6.2

Young and in prison for theft, Daphne falls in love with Josh, another inmate. Their love story exists through secret letters and fleeting conversations.



Fruits of Passion
5.2

A girl named O loves a rich, and much older man. She is subjected to a variety of humiliating experiences to prove her unconditional obedience to him in a Chinese brothel. A poor boy sees her and falls in love with her. To get the money needed to sleep with her, he takes part in rebellious acts.



Fall in Love at First Kiss

Yuan Xiangqin, a high school student, is deeply in love with Jiang Zhishu, her schoolmate. He rejects her, only for them to live together when the house that she resides in collapses.



Time to Love
7.6

On the Princes’ Islands to the south of Istanbul, the days are rainy and full of longing. Poor but proud painter Halil gets a job in one of the island’s villas, where he encounters the photograph of a beautiful woman and falls in love with her image.



April Story
7.205

In spring, a girl leaves the island of Hokkaido to attend university in Tokyo. Once there, she is asked to reveal why she wanted to go there in the first place.



G
G(2002)
6.598

A young Hip Hop star named Summer G falls for a middle to upper class sister while in college. After she rejects him for a fellow social climber, Summer G spends ten years building a Hip Hop empire, then moves to the Hamptons where he finds the object of his affections.



Nobody's Daughter Haewon

Haewon, a college student, wants to end her secret affair with her professor, Seongjun. Feeling depressed after bidding farewell to her mother who is set to immigrate to Canada the next day, Haewon seeks out Seongjun again after a long time. That day, they run into her classmates at a restaurant and their relationship gets revealed. Haewon gets more agitated and Seongjun makes an extreme suggestion to run away together… Haewon dreams often. Her dreams will be compared to her waking life, but none can be denied as being a part of her life.



Revolutionary Girl Utena: The Movie

In a loose retelling of the Revolutionary Girl Utena TV series, Utena Tenjou arrives at Ohtori Academy, only to be immediately swept up in a series of duels for the hand of her classmate Anthy Himemiya and the power she supposedly holds. At the same time, Utena reunites with Touga Kiryuu, a friend from her childhood who seems to know the secrets behind the duels. Utena must discover those secrets for herself, before the power that rules Ohtori claims her and her friends, new and old.



Sky of Love
7.7

Mika is a fresh high school student who starts texting a mysterious boy. She is shocked when he reveals who he is - Hiro, a delinquent attending her school. What she doesn't know is that Hiro isn't as bad as he seems.



Comrades, Almost a Love Story

Jun arrives in Hong Kong from mainland China, hoping to be able to earn enough money to marry his girlfriend back home. He meets the streetwise Qiao and they become friends. As friendship turns into love, problems develop, and although they seem meant for each other they somehow keep missing out.



Platform
Platform(2001)
6.978

China’s rapid changes from the late 1970s to the early 1990s, as seen through the lives of four performers in a theater troupe.



UFO
UFO(2022)
6.1

When aspiring musician and student Deniz falls for a rough-hewn motorbike racer, tragedy and family opposition obstruct their path to love.



Fire with Fire
6.155

A tough, street-smart kid serving a sentence in a state youth reformatory meets a beautiful, innocent girl studying at a nearby convent. When forbidden love blossoms between them, they must fight the prison authorities, their parents and the law.



Sappho
Sappho(2008)
4.3

On honeymoon on the island of Lesbos, a woman falls for the daughter of a Russian archaeologist.



After
After(2019)
7.115

Tessa Young is a dedicated student, dutiful daughter and loyal girlfriend to her high school sweetheart. Entering her first semester of college, Tessa's guarded world opens up when she meets Hardin Scott, a mysterious and brooding rebel who makes her question all she thought she knew about herself -- and what she wants out of life.



Sugar Baby
7.074

Love comes without asking. Often not to those, not so and not then. Can a genuine feeling survive when everything started wrong and the whole world is against it? Give up everything or give up? Burn or survive?



Curse of the Golden Flower

During China's Tang dynasty the emperor has taken the princess of a neighboring province as his wife. She has borne him two sons and raised his eldest. Now his control over his dominion is complete, including the royal family itself.



Gabriel's Rapture: Part II

In the fifth installment of the Gabriel's Inferno series, Gabriel and Julia’s happiness is threatened by a conspiring student and academic politics. When Gabriel is confronted by the university administration, will he succumb to Dante's fate? Or will he fight to keep Julia, his Beatrice, forever?



China Girl
5.936

Teenage lovers Tony and Tyan-Hwa tip the balance of power in New York's Little Italy and Chinatown.



Last Summer
6.039

One summer, a French teenager who has been living with his mother in the city moves in with his estranged father’s family in the countryside, where he clashes with his stepmother.



Last Harem
5.5

A story of the impossible love between one of the Sultan's concubines and one of his eunuchs in a harem at the end of the Ottoman Empire.



In the Mood for Love
8.093

In 1962 Hong Kong, neighbors Su Li-zhen (Mrs. Chan) and Chow Mo-wan (Mr. Chow) discover their spouses are having an affair. As they spend time together, they develop feelings for each other, but their relationship remains chaste and unspoken, reflecting societal constraints and their own moral compass.



Perhaps Love
6.7

A love triangle develops between the male and female leads and the director during the making of a musical in Mainland China.



14+
14+(2015)
6.867

Alex glides his mouse tenderly over online images of Vika. He has been smitten ever since he saw her with her friends and cannot get her out of his head. Unfortunately, Vika is beyond Alex’s reach because he's not welcome in her neighborhood. Nonetheless, Alex sneaks into a disco at her school and finds up the courage to ask her to dance. Moments are intense as Alex feels infatuation for the first time.



Daytime Shooting Star

Fifteen-year-old country girl Suzume Yosano has to move to Tokyo to live with her uncle due to her father's transfer. She bumps into a mysterious man who ends up taking her to her uncle's place after she gets lost. Turns out, Suzume will be seeing him a lot more often once she starts school because... he's her homeroom teacher?!



Delirium
Delirium(2014)
6.2

Set in a world where love is deemed illegal and can be eradicated with a special procedure. With 95 days to go until her scheduled treatment, Lena Holoway does the unthinkable, she falls in love.



Something Like Summer
5.619

Something Like Summer traces the tumultuous relationship of Ben and Tim, secret high school sweethearts who grow over the years into both adulthood enemies and complicated friends.



Still Life
7.207

A town in Fengjie county is gradually being demolished and flooded to make way for the Three Gorges Dam. A man and woman visit the town to locate their estranged spouses, and become witness to the societal changes.



The Life of Oharu
7.7

In Edo Period Japan, a noblewoman's banishment for her love affair with a lowly page signals the beginning of her inexorable fall.



My Tomorrow, Your Yesterday

Takatoshi Minamiyama majors in art at an university in Kyoto. On the train to the school, he sees Emi Fukuju and falls in love with her at first sight. Gathering up all his courage, he speaks to her. They begin to date and enjoy happy days together, but Emi reveals her secret to him.



White Girl
5.7

Summer, New York City. A college girl falls hard for a guy she just met. After a night of partying goes wrong, she goes to wild extremes to get him back.



Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress

During the Cultural Revolution, two young men are sent to a remote mining village where they fall in love with the local tailor's beautiful granddaughter and discover a suitcase full of forbidden Western novels.



The Lover
The Lover(1992)
7

A poor French teenage girl engages in an illicit affair with a wealthy Chinese heir in 1920s Saigon. For the first time in her young life she has control, and she wields it deftly over her besotted lover throughout a series of clandestine meetings and torrid encounters.



House of Flying Daggers

In 9th century China, a corrupt government wages war against a rebel army called the Flying Daggers. A romantic warrior breaks a beautiful rebel out of prison to help her rejoin her fellows, but things are not what they seem.



Endless Love
7.335

Sparks fly when a humble housekeeper crosses paths with a wealthy surgeon, but a devastating truth puts their relationship to the test.



A Moment of Romance

After a young Triad member takes an upper-class girl hostage during his escape from a jewelry heist, the two find themselves falling in love, in spite of the repercussions caused by their forbidden relationship.



David's Birthday
5.586

Two couples are enjoying their summer at the beach, but when the grown son of one couple arrives, it surprisingly stirs something in the husband of the other couple, will the forbidden feelings end badly?



Hot Gimmick: Girl Meets Boy

A quiet teen's life is shaken up when she's forced to be her arrogant neighbor's slave. He loves her, but they both have a lot to learn about trust.



The World
The World(2004)
6.88

At Beijing World Park, a bizarre cross-pollination of Las Vegas and Epcot Center where visitors can interact with famous international monuments without ever leaving the city’s suburbs, a security guard betrays his dancer girlfriend by pursuing another woman.



Photocopier
6.9

When photos of her at a party cause her to lose a scholarship, a student investigates whether something devastating happened to her that night.



Your Name Engraved Herein

In 1987, as martial law ends in Taiwan, Jia-han and Birdy fall in love amid family pressure, homophobia and social stigma.



Gabriel's Inferno
8.403

An intriguing and sinful exploration of seduction, forbidden love, and redemption, Gabriel's Inferno is a captivating and wildly passionate tale of one man's escape from his own personal hell as he tries to earn the impossible--forgiveness and love.



Lust, Caution
7.2

During World War II, a secret agent must seduce and assassinate an official who works for the Japanese puppet government in Shanghai.



Due West: Our Sex Journey

Set in contemporary Hong Kong, several young people are searching for romance and struggling to learn the difference between lust and love in an adventure that takes them to the mainland where pleasure is much more readily available.



Devil in the Flesh
5.555

An Italian high school student becomes infatuated with a woman he sees outside his class window. Her fiancée is in jail for being involved in a radical movement, and she spends much time in court providing moral support. At first she resists the student's advances, but eventually begins an affair with him. Their situation is condemned by her family and his father, who is the woman's psychologist.



Girls in Uniform
6.114

A new student, Manuela, enters a strict girls' boarding school after her mother’s death, where she finds comfort in a kind teacher, stirring complex emotions within her.



The Riot Club
5.9

Two first-year students at Oxford University join a secret society and learn that their reputations can be made or destroyed over the course of one evening.



Oki's Movie
6.667

Oki, a film student, gets involved in two relationships as she navigates the advances of a fellow student and grapples with her feelings for her much older professor.



A Brighter Summer Day

A boy experiences first love, friendships and injustices growing up in 1960s Taiwan.



Secret
Secret(2007)
7.567

Ye Xiang Lun, a talented piano player is a new student at the prestigious Tamkang School. On his first day, he meets Lu Xiao Yu, a pretty girl playing a mysterious piece of music.



The Hottest Summer
5.283

Each year Lucia volunteers at a Summer Camp in Sicily. This summer however, will be the hottest on record, not just because of the crazy weather, but also because of Nicola, the new soon-to-be-priest deacon who, besides being extremely handsome, hides a tormented and idealistic soul. His arrival sows panic in this seaside community, upsetting Lucia's plans forever.



Adore
Adore(2013)
6.121

Lil and Roz are two lifelong friends, having grown up together as neighbors in an idyllic beach town. As adults, their sons have developed a friendship as strong as that which binds their mothers. One summer, all four are confronted by simmering emotions that have been mounting between them, and each find unexpected happiness in relationships that cross the bounds of convention.



Raise the Red Lantern

In 1920s China, 19-year-old Songlian becomes a concubine of a powerful lord and is forced to compete with his three wives for the privileges gained.



Dream Home
6.4

A woman will go to whatever lengths necessary to obtain her dream home with a view of the sea. This includes driving down the property value and decreasing the occupancy rate by killing her potential neighbors.



Paris Is Us
4.3

Dreams and reality collide as a young woman navigates a tumultuous relationship amid rising social tensions, protests and tragedies in Paris.

AboutPrivacy PolicyTerms of ServiceContact Us