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Generally I'm not a big fan of melodrama, and LAN YU is a classic, Sirk-league piece of melodrama, so I can't say I loved this film. But it is impressive in a number of ways - the depiction of intimacy, and of a slowly-developing relationship is very well done, and this film is very obviously the work of a thoughtful and talented filmmaker. I also liked the cinematography - very un-flashy, which serves the material well: a dry, slice-of-life look which stands apart from the dramatics of the plot, and definitely underscores the normality (or validity) of gay relationships, perhaps in a culture that is still coming to terms with such relationships. The dinner scenes - which are beautifully shot and staged - stand out.

It should be noted that director Stanley Kwan has a handful of other artistically notable films to his credit, with ROUGE and ACTRESS generating acclaim around the globe. Kwan claims Hollywood melodramatist Douglas Sirk and Japanese contemporary dramatist Yasujiro Ozu as major influences, and both of those influences are apparent here - the studied, careful mis-en-scene of Ozu; and a story balanced between social critique and three-hanky melodrama, in the fashion of Sirk. Kwan is also one of a small (but growing) number of out Asian filmmakers, and noting this (and his artistic influences) helps to understand the overall importance of this film.

If some of the most creative and engaging gay film being made today is coming from Asia, Europe and Latin America - which I believe to be true - then this film is definitely among the best of that wave. Worth a look.

I really wanted to like this movie. The actors are good looking, honest and real, and the very fact that it is a Chinese film is intriguing. However well intentioned this film was, I believe that it fell quite short of its mark.

The story is of two guys who have a relationship; there is not much new here. Although there are some wonderful uses of interesting camera angles and a decided lack of score, Lan Yu was not able to unify these elements into an effective picture.

Don't get me wrong, however, the film was quite interesting. But when I left I felt cheated; the ending is a huge disappointment, and the entire intermittent narrative voice is really unnecessary. Although well intentioned, this film gyrates between excess sentimentality (Chinese film style,) and touching humor; although some movies can pull these two strains together, this one could not.

Whereas other reviewers have stated a great emotional complexity, I caught no such vibe from either of the main characters. Unfortunately, I really did not care that much about either of them, and was unable to believe that their love was as great as they both proclaimed at various times. Although sweet, this movie was really just fluff lite.

I cried while watching it, and I don't know if I was crying about my life or the movie. "Rainbow Shy and Afraid to be on Camera" kept feeling like it was a bad ending, and near the end thought it was a happy ending, but it almost can be seen as a good ending. The square was mentioned over and over again and I kept wondering if it was really just a romance movie.

I went to see "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" with a young Chinese man who said to me, as if I didn't know this, "Of course it has a tragic ending. It's Chinese!" That awakening, plus seeing the movie in a Chinese filled theatre, taught me something. I rented "Lan Yu" expecting a Chinese movie. I didn't get one. There were no intense cultural overtones, just references. Mao, Tiannimen Square, Russians, yes. The matriarch's New Year's dinner was the closest thing to Chinese culture. But, of course, Beijing and Hong Kong are cosmopolitan. The plot even makes fun of Lan Yu being thrust into the city from the country.

I put this movie in the category of "Parting Glances," "Steam," and "Love, Valor, Compassion," definitely not "Philadelphia." That's a high compliment for me. I've seen boring, "go for the audience impact" Gay movies. This isn't one, thank goodness. It's a love story with the complexity of approach/avoidance conflict, embraced by friends who are straight, even though the story is about Gay love. And it's about one-sided love, growing love, fearing the loss of love, committment anxiety, and all that, the same as in straight relationships. It has acceptance and tolerance and is totally devoid of sneers from the homophobic thrown in to thicken the plot.

The character development is a little sparse, but actually we learn about them quickly. There's no long wind up. Skillful! The character depth is what grows. Lan Yu grows. His lover doesn't, until it's too late.

The direction and photography were subtly superb. I didn't catch on until far into the film how good the photography was and placement of the characters. The acting was excellent -- or was it their direction?

How interesting that the clearly more submissive character is the stronger one.

Did those who hated this movie notice all of that, or are they jaded? I wouldn't like to be at a play or movie with them.

Wonderful movie. I cried. I laughed. I'm still feeling it. Very few movies do that to me.

Drawn from a novel anonymously posted on the Internet, Stanley Kwan's admirably audacious gay-themed Chinese film was filmed in China without the approval of officials, who surely would have been less than consenting to sanction the filming of a script which included frontal male nudity, sexually straightforward dialogue and allusions to Tiananmen Square and unethical businessmen.

As the second most populous country moves more into the realm of capitalism, homosexuality is still underground, yet in the bar favored by Handong, the central character, for shooting pool and picking up boys things appear more or less on the face. He picks up a country lad, architectural student Lan Yu who needs money to bankroll his education and welcomes Handong's overture just for the money until as expected he discovers that he too is gay, falls in love with the urbane exec, and gets dumped. Dumped, until, naturally, there is an about-face in Handong's situation which backpedals the roles.

The movie, set in Beijing in the late 1980s and early 1990s, is opulently crafted, but it is also more or less superficial and creatively stilted. Hu and Liu lay consistent, realistic performances at our feet that glimmer with grief, yearning and sentiment, but their characters feel skin deep, and the film will in all probably prevail in appeal almost exclusively to its target gay audience. The very elementary story appears too obtuse and the progression of the narrative essentially optional. For a film as concise as 86 minutes, this is considerably tardy material.

I expected something tepid and tormented, like "East Palace West Palace" and instead found a wonderful drama about the China of the 80s and 90s.

A successful businessman sees, at a fancy party, a young man brought to the party by another attendee. He and a co-worker decide to pounce: they take him (Lan Yu) out and treat him royally. The young man winds up staying with the businessman, who gives him money, but is ambivalent about whether he wants to see Lan Yu again. He feels that he can have relationships and remain unattached.

Lan Yu shows up periodically over the course of years, and the businessman gives him larger and larger gifts, including a fancy house in the suburbs. But the businessman meets a woman who translates for him in a deal he's making with Russians. He decides to marry the woman. Lan Yu will not put up with it and refuses to see the businessman.

The businessman's shady deals get him into trouble, and he loses almost everything. Then Lan Yu comes back into the picture and . . . (I'll leave it there).

Besides being a wonderful melodrama, this is also a hot gay film. Full frontal and dorsal nudity, some sex. The men are hairless and sexy, but real. Lots of kissing.

And all the time you're wondering: did they actually film this in China? Do they allow this in China? How did they get away with this....It must have been filmed in Hong Kong. Well, according to the Sundance website, this was filmed in China, and based on a short story that appeared only on the Internet.

It's by far my favorite Chinese movie, and if you're interested in gay life in the new China, this is the one to see.

As a film, "Lan Yu" can be classified as a simple love story whose protagonists make their intentions clear as they have concrete ideas about how far their relationship would go. It can be surmised that this type of brutal honesty might be appreciated by a certain section of viewers. As this is one of the few original gay themed films to come out of Hong Kong, director Stanley Kwan steers clear of any undue controversy as his film briefly alludes to a time period when Tiananmen Square protests caused tremendous anguish in China. Lan Yu does feature some scenes of mild nudity. However, viewers would find them to be timid if a comparison is made with other gay themed films especially by directors such as François Ozon, Pedro Almodovar and Fassbinder. This film can also be seen in the backdrop of a bigger sociological phenomenon as according to a latest estimate 16 million women are married to gay men in China. This is exactly the fate of this film's hero as he too had to marry to save face. This aspect forms part of the second half which is rather weak. It is from here that the film begins to end on a sluggish note. Finally, Lan Yu is a good film for anybody interested in exploring films made by Stanley Kwan.

I found this particular film very moving. Regardless of the the way the two characters meet for the first time it is about relationship, not sex. (despite Handong, struggling to perceive it the other way around). Nice and subtle, seem bereft of any cheap cinema tricks. I guess that goes back to the Asian culture towards homosexuality and is the reason why I prefer Asian gay-themed movies to European or north American main stream production. I wish there was more of this kind of movies portraying man to man relationship as based on feelings rather than sex. Stanley Kwan joins Ang Lee in leading the way... In my opinion, along 'Farewell My Concubine' the best gay-themed Chinese movie.

LAN YU is another indication that films from China are becoming increasingly more poignant, less dependent on spectacle, and certainly more daring in view of the political milieu. Director Stanley Kwan not only has courage to make this poignant film, he also has the gifts to create an atmospheric, gentle, quiet, and luminously photographed love story. He draws understated performances from his actors, never stooping to caricature, always respectful of the inherent delicacy of his subject matter. Lan Yu is a handsome young gay architecture student who becomes involved with Hangdong, a closeted Beijing businessman. The affair they pursue is subtle yet not without passion, the kind of understated passion that rings true rather than playing for sensationalism. The plot twists and turns - Lan Yu is set aside by Hangdong for a "proper marriage" which leads to divorce and to other losses, bringing Hangdong back to seek his real love - Lan Yu. The change in their relationship speaks loudly for a wider acceptance of same sex love. To reveal the ending would be a disservice to the viewer. Part of the joy of this simple story is the sensitivity of Hangdong's colleagues in responding to the his various dilemmas: there is no "bad guy", no prejudice, no castigation - these friends are committed and make homophobia seem merely a foreign, unimportant word. This film is a model of restraint and intelligent, finely crafted story telling. The actors are uniformly excellent and win our hearts. Highly Recommended!

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.

The person who loves you the most is me, how can you make me sad, when I need you most, you leave without saying a word

I was so very disappointed by this movie. There was absolutely no sex at all. Sure, they show you every little thing up until the act that I was waiting for the whole 86 minutes, and then they disappoint you. This movie is the biggest tease ever, in the history if things that tease. Also, why are all movies about gay Chinese men so depressing? They need to get their act together and just be happy like the Thai boys in Formula 17. Other than the great lack of getting it on, this movie did have good qualities. It does a really good job of portraying the growth of a relationship and the mistakes people make. However, the ending was completely unnecessary and seemed as though it was simply a way to make the movie even more depressing. The ending left me feeling the way one feels when the main character wakes up in a great movie and it was all a dream, as though the writers were out of ideas and just slapped something together in an effort to try to mess with the audience.

It has an overall feel of an Eric Rohmer film, the portrayal of the reality of emotion and connection in the stark environment of modern Beijing and Chinese society is a feat of amazing subtlety.

Perhaps incomprehensible to people in a society long open, the stark contrast between the comfort of rare privilege and emotional squalor and the material squalor of the young student/architect and emotional richness there goes beyond the triteness the another user accuses this material of.

I am fairly jaded westerner moved to emotional resonance, (certainly not the result of the melodramatic ending I could have done without.)

Basically, this is the story about a well-to-do Beijing businessman with questionable business principles who enjoys the company of young male students whom he treats as his play thing and pays them for their sexual participation.

Lan Yu a somewhat shy architectural student attending a University in Beijing is enticed into the businessman's home where he is subsequently seduced.

In the ensuing months the relationship deepens and they become lovers meeting at every opportunity. The emotions are subtly portrayed by the two actors. We hang on every word spoken and get caught up in their feelings. "We must never become too close", says the businessman. "It is right and proper for a man to have a wife and children". Such are his thoughts....

Secretive though their relationship may be, it is never sordid. They feel so relaxed in each other's company. The tiny rooms and narrow passageways are almost claustrophobic. Note the device of photographing reflections in mirrors so often throughout the film. An interesting technique which is constantly repeated. In a mirror you see a person lying in bed. Beyond the camera you hear a door closing. You know that some one has left the room, though you do not see it. And note the frequent use of close-ups so important in emotional scenes. A hug, a kiss, a sob, a tear....so meaningful...and each emotion tugs at your heart.

Shakespeare said "Parting is such sweet sorrow". Here we have such sorrow, but then the joy of re-uniting, followed alas! by a new tragedy that parts them once more.

The final scene when the businessman stops his car at the building site and then speeds on ever so quickly with the concrete pillars flashing by is a fitting ending in itself. I think the song detracts from the mood and would be better omitted.

Well it's really a good story but not too very good movie, since the DVD that I watched had many deleted scene which makes me feeling upset because I can't understand the movie completely. However Lan Yu is a really good gay's movie its portray a beautiful love story and great performance from both of the main actors. I can feel Lan Yu's and Han Dong's emotions which makes me deeply sad and fell happy because I've had chance to see such a good movie. Even though it's not a happy ending but at least they've both already known about true love. And the soundtrack is good especially the lyric its almost describe exactly the same with what lan yu's felt.

If you feel bore with man-woman love story or just want to see a good movie and want to see something new, you have to watch this movie.

There is always a lot of hype whenever a gay film is released. And the film's burden only gets heavier when awards and accolades come its way. Lan Yu is a fine example of such a film, and a victim at that. Many have watched the Chinese film (winner of 5 Golden Horse Awards) and were disappointed - with the stereotyped plot and characters, with the shallow treatment of gay relationships, with the melodramatic and contrived ending, and perhaps because they have harboured excessive expectations, with a million other aspects that a film can be faulted for.

Indeed, the film breaks no new ground. The characters are stock characters, with Lan Yu (Liu Ye) as the young idealistic architectural undergraduate who is new in his search of love, and Han Dong (Hu Jun) as the worldly-wise businessman whose every sexual encounter is nothing more than a casual fling. Their initial encounter (which was a business transaction of sort), subsequent reunions and everything else that happens in between are the common tools that have been used to propel a zillion other love stories, straight or otherwise. But seriously, how different can a love story of two people whose paths cross time and again get?

That said, Lan Yu's plot cannot really be faulted. It chose to focus on the story of the two men, and made no qualms about it. Some people may think the film's secondary plots have been neglected or too hastily brushed aside. But I think that was a wise move, because in restricting the scope and defining its topic of interest, it steers clear of the pitfalls that plagued many films that attempted to be epics. I don't really want to know about Lan Yu's family background even though he made that one single call to his mother. I don't really want to know what Han Dong's illegal business dealings were even though he did go to jail for a while. I don't even want to know about the three-year marriage that Han Dong had with a brainy woman called Lin Jin Ping (Su Qin), or when it was that Han Dong's family members were so comfortable with his sexuality. Very focused direction indeed.

In addition, Stanley Kwan has shown more restraint and maturity in directing this film than he had in his previous acclaimed movies. Perhaps it's because the subject matter here is much closer to his heart. Centrestage, despite the luminous Maggie Cheung, was picture-perfect but drifted in a million directions, and his Red Rose/White Rose, despite credible technicalities, was all flashy images with no heart. In Lan Yu, much of the dialogue is made up of lines that you and I speak all the time, with little pretension. And given the film's potential to degenerate into mush, Kwan does not spend excessive time on the melodrama or on trying to milk your tear-glands. We get a heartfelt story that is appropriately paced, and sincere in its delivery.

The gem of the film lies in the extraordinarily understated strength of the two actors, both in portraying the complexities of the individual characters and in concocting the intense chemistry that resulted. Leslie Cheung never reached that level with Tony Leung in Happy Together though he had it slightly better with Zhang Fengyi in Farewell to My Concubine. Daniel Wu and Stephen Fung were too preened and pretty to act in Bishonen, and Huang Lei and Yi Zhaode were overwhelmed by the visuals in Fleeing by Night. Here, you could feel Hu Jun's lip-biting vulnerability and loneliness beneath the character's steely exterior as the film progressed, and this is matched emotion for emotion by Liu Ye's delicate demeanour that gradually toughened and matured as Lan Yu promised never to allow himself to be hurt by others again. The latter's Best Actor win was a well-deserved one.

One of cinema's greatest magic is its ability to elicit a gamut of subjective responses to any film, or even down to any scene. A film whose plot can touch in ways others can't deserves compliment. A film whose characters one can identify and empathise with deserves praise. To me, Lan Yu has both, and it deserves both my compliment and praise.

Locally, this film played to mixed critical reviews, but I am absolutely enamored by Stanley Kwan's brilliant, understated film style. While LAN YU is a fairly ordinary love story, a rich man falls for a younger, more humble male novice from the country, and what was supposed to be a one night stand turns out to be the subject of this 9 year film exploration, taken from the popular e-novel BEIJING STORY released anonymously on the Internet in 1996, and while one would believe that this story has been told over and over again in nearly every culture, the way that this story is filmed is anything but ordinary. Stanley Kwan is simply a superb director, visually stunning with layers of rich texture, subtle with very dark interiors, extremely detailed with only glimpses of color, a slow measured pace that examines the psychological inner needs of these characters, both of whom are superb in this film, Jun Hu as the older businessman and especially Liu Ye as the younger character of Lan Yu. The obvious comparisons would be Leslie Cheung and Tony Leung in Wong Kar-wei's HAPPY TOGETHER, which has much more razzle dazzle and high energy than this film, or perhaps Leslie Cheung and Fengyi Zhang in Chen Kaige's FAREWELL MY CONCUBINE, which has a much more broad and epic subject matter. Here the film confines itself to two men almost exclusively, and their screen chemistry IS the film, as how they react and what they have to say to one another is remarkably moving in it's brevity as well as it's honesty. I found the last half of Hou Hsiao-hsien's 2001 film MILLENNIUM MAMBO was very much in the style of Stanley Kwan, the energy simply stops and the film crawls into a ghost-like crevasse, a mind-numbing, desolate despair, while LAN YU, also filmed in 2001, adds Hou's ritual of letting his camera hover over a festive table of people eating and catching the power of human interplay in their most ordinary moments. My chief complaint is how the ending misses the mark. Maybe I'm missing something here, but the entire film builds to an emotional intensity that simply dissipates, like letting the air out of a balloon, and I, for one, was disappointed. Again, while a simple story, this film has extraordinary emotional complexity which makes this one of the best films I've seen this year.

Very talky, dull film following the sexual relationship between two Asian men for a number of years.

The acting is all good (especially by the two leads) and there are some interesting scenes (primarily when the men talk about their relationship), but more often then not, I was bored. Scenes go on endlessly after their points have been made and I quickly got bored. Also the direction is very bad with lots of annoying quick cuts, strange camera angles and way too abrupt editing. At 86 minutes this seemed more like 3 hours. Also it had a totally predictable, tragic ending which I found needless and a little homophobic. Not recommended at all. Avoid.

Portraying Gay & Gay couples in film has gone long since early days when we were ignored or treated as problem that should be solved. It is nice to see a film that although come from a traditional country, where Homosexuality is not accepted or tolerated, still manage to portray gay people as normal as any other people. Without been patronizing to its characters. Through the whole film there is not one word of judgment or condemnation which is refreshing. The love story between Handong(Hu Jun), a businessman and Lan Yu(Liu Ye)a student of architecture is shown in the most simple way. The focus is on the story and the characters and both actors in the main lead are doing an excellent job. You relate to them and experience with them in what happens to them. It shame that the ending has much to do with how gay men were portrayed in the 70's & the 80's. But this is a minor complaint from my behalf.

I never read the original story. But the film is good and worth seeing whether you have read the book or not.

Throughout the Western world, the television broadcast and DVD/video release of the Queer As Folk series is considered to be a pivotal element in changing public perceptions of homosexuality.

The film version of China's most popular modern (and Internet based) novel, Lan Yu, may well bring the same change to much of Asia. Lan Yu is filmed and set in modern Beijing – it's the story of a wordly-wise businessman Hangdong who finds true love with Lan Yu, the student activist he thought was a "one night stand".

Covering a 9 year period in which their love is tested by separation, financial stress, cultural pressures and relationship problems, "Lan Yu" shows how compelling and real a same-sex loving relationship can be.

The actors are superb, Stanley Kwan's direction is entertaining and beautiful and Jimmy Gnai's screenplay presents an uncomplicated easily accessible narrative.

The following is a brief excerpt from my interview with Stanley Kwan in Brisbane in July 2001:

JF: We had the pleasure of seeing your film Lan Yu here last night as part of the Brisbane International Film Festival and it's a very honest portrayal of how men can love each other. You must be happy with the film?

SK: I'm quite happy – especially as I said last night, that this is the first time I've worked with a major Beijing film crew and I found the process very exciting and you know there are lots of efficient and talented crew members and actors in Beijing. So it was just a wonderful experience and during the shooting I found that they were also very devoted to the story – the emotion, the relationship of the characters. So I think somehow the final product I'm quite satisfied with, and part of the reason is that the whole crew were really devoted to it.

JF: The story that "Lan Yu" is based on is being represented as perhaps the most widely read Chinese novel – and it's an electronic novel, it exists only on the Internet. Because that story is so popular, do you expect that when Lan Yu is released on DVD, that it will be watched throughout mainland China - even if it doesn't ever get to be in the cinema?

SK: I think theatrical release is still impossible. From "day one" the financier and producer knew that. With this subject we thought there is no way that we can release the film in theatres in Mainland China. But we believe that the film's second life, the DVD market or the videotape market – that would be large in Mainland, because you know we set up a website for Lan Yu on the Internet and the audience response was excellent. So we are going to distribute the DVD, the VCD or videotape in Mainland on our own - and not particularly because of the money. We've made this film adapted from this popular novel and we would like that the product can be shown to most of the (potential) audience – especially the gay people, they are really longing for that.

As someone who has had two or three boyfriends in "The New China", this film is very accurate, not just about gay men in China -- but also about China today with its real estate booms, and banking scandals, and drinking lots of Johnny Walker Black Label if you're rich enough to afford it.

And as someone who has been a professional filmmaker, I think the work is well done. I didn't know that Stanley Kwan cited Sirk and Ozu as influences, but I can see them when I look at this movie. It's got a good narrative pacing and intelligent framing, two qualities I associate with Sirk and Ozu. You can't passively consume this movie; if you try, you'll be bored. But by meditatively viewing this film, there are some good rewards that you will feel by the final fade-out.