Spring Fever (Chun feng chen zui de ye wan) (2009)

47% of critics liked it
(15 reviews)
63% of users liked it
(163 ratings)

Nanjing, present day, springtime. Wang Ping's wife suspects him of adultery. She hires Luo Haitao to spy on him and discovers that her husband's lover is a man, Jiang Cheng. It's with this man that Luo Haitao and his girlfriend, Li Jing, form a torrid love triangle. For all three, it's the beginning… More Nanjing, present day, springtime. Wang Ping's wife suspects him of adultery. She hires Luo Haitao to spy on him and discovers that her husband's lover is a man, Jiang Cheng. It's with this man that Luo Haitao and his girlfriend, Li Jing, form a torrid love triangle. For all three, it's the beginning of asphyxiating, sultry nights of physical abandon that exalt the senses. A sulfurous journey into the confines of jealousy and obsessive love. -- (C) Strand

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Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 1 hr. 47 min.
Directed By: Ye Lou
Written By: Feng Mei
Genres: Art House & International, Drama

In Theaters: Aug 6, 2010 Limited
On DVD: Aug 17, 2010
Studio: Strand Releasing

Critic Reviews

Stephen Holden, New York Times
Portrays contemporary China as a seething hotbed of erotic curiosity and discontent.
Dan Kois, Village Voice
For long stretches of this tantalizing, romantic, aggravating film -- until just before its extremely satisfying ending, in fact -- I wished Lou had caught a little spring fever himself, cranked up the volume, and turned on the lights.
Walter V. Addiego, San Francisco Chronicle
Its examination of identity and loneliness begins to feel like a soap opera season boiled down into one very long episode with too much happening.
Derek Elley, Variety
This overlong and very Euro-flavored "Spring" won't make many B.O. wickets bloom.
Maggie Lee, Hollywood Reporter
This film is a considerable improvement as it generates intensity through the extreme intimacy among its minimalist cast.
Peter Keough, Boston Phoenix
Artful, dreary, and pointless -- it's time for Lou Ye to lighten up.
David Noh, Film Journal International
This tale of gay men and their woes in China is courageous, but too self-consciously directed and lugubriously uninvolving.
Kent Turner, Film-Forward.com
The poppy soundtrack in the clubs scenes and a karaoke bar scene proves Noël Coward's observation, "Strange how potent cheap music is."
David Fear, Time Out New York
So what do you do once the Chinese authorities forbid you from making movies for five years?
Ed Gonzalez, Slant Magazine
The film becomes a confused pantomime of fear and disaffection, succumbing to a torpidness from which it never recovers.
Mike D'Angelo, AV Club
I think there's meant to be a tender love story buried somewhere in all this remote melodrama, but none of the five major characters makes the slightest impression.
Jamie Graham, Total Film
Some of it hits home, raw and emotional. Other sequences (a karaoke scene, moony shots of Nanjing) thrum with a tender melancholy. Most of it, though, is boring, nonsensical and off-puttingly convinced of its own worth.
Sukhdev Sandhu, Daily Telegraph
Lou, helped by Zeng Jian's striking camerawork, captures very well the mood of drift and fragmentation in modern-day urban China. Compelling and messy in equal measure, it's a cine-letter to the future.
Geoff Andrew, Time Out
We're supposed to feel some kind of infinite sadness about our existential loneliness and vulnerability; but what I felt, despite a scattering of strong scenes, was a growing impatience both with the characters and the trite message.
Howard Feinstein, Screen International
Director Lou Ye, aided by Zeng Jian's astonishing camerawork, manages to hit a poignant note with floral imagery in Spring Fever.