Love and Bruises

Love and Bruises follows Hua, a Chinese student who moves to Paris to continue her studies and works as a teacher there. She becomes involved with Mathieu, a young labourer who falls for her, and their relationship develops into an intense and violent affair marked by physical and verbal abuse. When Hua tries to break away and return to China, she finds that her attachment to Mathieu is far stronger than she expected, and that he has come to occupy a central place in her life.

The film was directed by Lou Ye, whose earlier features include Suzhou River and Summer Palace, with The Shadow Play and An Unfinished Film following it. Liu Jie Falin and Lou Ye wrote the screenplay, and the cast is led by Tahar Rahim as Mathieu, Corinne Yam as Hua, and Jalil Lespert as Giovanni, alongside Vincent Rottiers, Sifan Shao and Patrick Mille. It is a China-France co-production from Why Not Productions and Les Films du Lendemain, running just over an hour and three-quarters.

Released in 2011, the film drew modest audience scores, sitting at 5.6 out of 10 on IMDb from 639 votes and 5.4 out of 10 on TMDB from 23 votes. Those figures point to a mixed response rather than a broad endorsement, and its position between Summer Palace and The Shadow Play makes it one entry in a body of work that has continued steadily since.