| Weekend Lover | |
| Director: | Lou Ye |
| Music: | Zhang Shaotong |
| Cinematography: | Zhang Xigui |
| Runtime: | 96 min. |
| Country: | China |
| Language: | Mandarin Chinese |
Weekend Lover is the 1995 directorial debut by Chinese director Lou Ye. The film stars actors Jia Hongsheng and Ma Xiaoqing. Fellow director Wang Xiaoshuai also plays a minor role.
The film follows a young man, A Xi, who is recently released from prison. Once released, he seeks out his old girlfriend Li Xin, who has since begun a relationship with La La, a young musician. As the two men vie for her attention, tension and violence escalate.
Weekend Lover served as Lou Ye's first feature-film since graduating from the Beijing Film Academy in 1989 and is notable for having the youngest production team in Chinese cinematic history upon its release.[1] Shot and produced in 1993 and 1994, once complete, the film was banned for two years by the Chinese film censors; after the ban ended, Weekend Lover was released internationally at the tail end of 1995.[2] [3]
Weekend Lovers noir-style and tales of violent disaffected youth led to its comparison with similar films of the period, notably Zhang Yuan's Beijing Bastards. Like that film, Weekend Lover is also considered a defining film for the "Sixth Generation" of Chinese cinema, particularly in its tone and subject matter that focuses on modern urban life instead of traditional Chinese history.[1] Less positive reviews often praised the film as technically assured, but convoluted in its plotting leading at least one reviewer to refer to it as a "minor festival curio."[3]
The film managed to premiere at a handful of foreign film festivals, notably the Turin Young Cinema Festival in 1995.[3] It eventually went on to win the Werner Fassbinder Award for Best Direction at the 1996 Mannheim-Heidelberg International Film Festival.[1]