Lan Yu

5/18/20011h 27m

Theatrical Release (US)

Overview:

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.

Director:

Stanley Kwan Kam-Pang

Status:

Released

Language:

Mandarin

Buget:

$0.00

Revenue:

$0.00

Key words:

china
beijing, china
lgbt
older man younger man relationship
1980s
gay theme
boys' love (bl)

Cast

Hu Jun

~ as ~

Chen Handong

Liu Ye

~ as ~

Lan Yu

Li Shuang

~ as ~

Weidong

Fang Lu

~ as ~

Yonghong

Shaohua Zhang

~ as ~

Niu Ma

Yongning Zhang

~ as ~

Daning

Su Jin

~ as ~

Lin Jingping

Du He

~ as ~

Sister Zhang

Li Bin

~ as ~

Bin Zi

Jingyi Liu

~ as ~

Liu Dali

View full cast & crew

Reviews (1)

CinemaSerf
Written 1 year(s) ago
7
This actually starts off rather seedily, I thought! A handsome young student "Lan Yu" (Ye Liu) is working in a restaurant where some of his colleagues discuss the idea of renting him out! It's the wealthy "Chen Handong" (Jun Hu) who gets the privilege and initially their's is the most transactional of relationships. The older man is an highly successful businessman and the younger one, a would-be architect who lives a basic lifestyle. Against the odds, perhaps, the two men start to bond and even though "Chen" is an ostensibly upstanding, straight, member of the community there is the distinct scent of love in the air. What now ensues condenses quite a lot of their lives - ups and downs for both men, even a conforming marriage - into the story of their sometimes quite turbulent relationship before a conclusion that I really didn't like!! That strength of disappointment with the ending, I think, is testament to two strong performances and a story that draws you in. You start off feeling a bit sorry for "Lan Yu", but gradually thereafter you begin to feel more invested in him as a person, and then with his lover and then with both as the characterisations blossom in a plausible fashion. There is a strong supporting cast of characters who help diffuse the tension at times, but when it is just the two on screen then this makes for one of the better gay romantic dramas that I've seen.