East Palace, West Palace is an unconventional yet touching love story, a sensual portrayal of one man's struggle with himself, and a disturbing indictment of the state-sanctioned oppression of homosexuals in China. In director Zhang Yuan's fifth feature, a writer named A-Lan is taken into police custody for engaging in homosexual activity in a Beijing park. In the spirit of Jean Genet's tortuous, impassioned yearnings, A-Lan is strangely attracted to his tormentor. During a routine interrogation, A-Lan vividly and poetically recounts his impoverished childhood, his first love, and various men from his past. Seen in flashbacks, all of the men in A-Lan's life have the face of his captor, officer Shi. A-Lan remains neither shamed nor intimidated by the oafish cop's verbal and physical abuse — he in fact welcomes it as the realization of his sado­masochistic desires.

By suggesting that the Chinese people have become conditioned to accept petty indignities perpetrated by the state, Yuan's simple film about gay life in China and the complex relationship that binds two particular men becomes bold social commentary.