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Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

This movie tells a love story between two Chinese men from the late 1980s to the late 90s. A teenager named Lan Yu just enrolled in a University in Beijing. He forced himself to accept a one-night stand offer in order to save himself from poor financial situation. Handong was a business man who lived a luxury and self-indulging life at that time. One of his indulgences was to bed with men and women. The pair spent their first night in Hangdong's private hotel room, which was Lan Yu's first time. Since then, fate had kept bringing them back to each other until Lan Yu's sudden death.This movie is based on an anonymous online novel named "Beijing Story" in which the author cherished the memory of Lan Yu as his lover. Compared to the original novel, the movie slightly altered Lan Yu's personality from an absolute introvert to someone who showed tendency to voice out emotions from time to time. But the essences of Lan Yu's shining personalities have been well preserved in the movie, which are his purity, simplicity, nobility and loyalty.Lan Yu's young heart had widely opened for Handong since their first night. For Lan yu, Handong's strong male presence in his fragile and humble life was a potent force that had been instilled in his young soul from the very beginning. Because of his admiration and affection for Handong, he ardently looked for part-time jobs and saved all the money Handong gave to him, in a hope to change the nature of their relationship. However for Handong, he would rather regard his associations with Lan Yu as straightforward business deals, logically. His genuine liking and growing concern for Lan Yu brought him not only satisfaction but also resistance and fear. After spending a short and happy time together in their suburban house that Handong gave Lan Yu as a gift, Handong decided to marry a woman in order to fulfill his male obligations, and accepted Lan Yu's refusal to stay in that house for him. A few years later, the pair met again accidentally, right after Handong's divorce. Without words, they revealed their suppressed longings for each other at Lan Yu' place through a sincere hug. Shortly after that, Handong was sent to prison due to his illegal business conduct. Lan Yu did everything he could to help Handong gain freedom. He put in all his personal savings and sold all his valuables including that suburban house Handong gave him. After being released from jail, Handoing said to Lan Yu that during his time in jail, he had clearly figured out that Lan Yu was his destiny. When Lan Yu eventually had chance to enjoy Handong's committed, unguarded and passionate love, he died in a tragic accident. For Handong, the most soothing way to ease his grief was driving along the streets of Beijing, day after day and year after year, in a hopeless and endless search of his lost angel, Lan Yu.As Da Vinci once said: "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication". Stanley Kwan's movie 'Lan Yu' has set a perfect example to show us the great contrast that how a truly deep love story can be told in a plainly calm way. Kwan did not force us to see, to listen or to believe anything just for the sake of the movie itself. Not a single word in the movie was purposefully written to manipulate the audiences' emotional reaction. The verbal exchanges between two characters were as simple as "It has been four months.", "Are you cold?", "Happy new year!","What should I wear?", "Are you still using the same shampoo?"… But it was those very words that took us from one season to another, from one year to another to witness their love attachment growing stronger and stronger. Not a single scene in this movie was intentionally plotted to amuse or sadden the audiences. Every moment was innocently unfolded to depict the unstoppable blossoming of their love while wrestling with resistance and hurts. They looked at each other, they quarreled with each other, they walked alongside by each other and they sang together with each other… Every moment was to reflect their evolving love in a natural flow until the moment they accepted each other as their divine destinies.In mainland China, intimate behaviors between two men would still be considered as a criminal offense before a reformed Criminal Law was issued in 1997. But this movie did not pay any attention to the homosexual controversy during that period. By focusing less on the convolution and adversity of its social context, this movie actually made a resoundingly stronger statement that love is merely about two people and the interaction of their souls, and nothing else should be taken into account in the matter of love.Besides its simplicity, 'Lan Yu' displayed Stanley Kwan's exquisite style and effortless taste in every aspect of filming. The movie is so beautifully made and I find it incredibly powerful pertaining to emotion awakening and spiritual nourishing.(In Chinese language, 'Lan' means the color of blue, and "Yu" has multiple meanings including cosmic space or grace. The name of 'Lan Yu' is perfect by itself.)

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.

I enjoyed this film. I thought the two lead actors had great chemistry and gave their character's relationship a lot of empathy and made the audience stay with them through the ups and downs of their relationship.There is a bit of time travel in this film and at times it seems disjointed, but then you figure out you are going back and forth between present and past time.The best aspect of this film is the dialog between the two leads, especially when they break up on the eve of Handong's wedding. Handong had problems coming to terms with who he was, while Lan Yu understood his and Handong's nature and accepted it. Lan yu seemed the more wiser soul between the two, despite his lack of wealth and worldly sophistication.This film also incorporated the importance of friendship, historical political events, and class differences.There has been a lot of speculation about Lan yu's boyfriend. I think he didn't exist, and his description of him, sounded a lot like Lan yu. A lot of people make up imaginary loves to ex loves, just from a sense of pride or to arouse jealousy.All in all, this film is an examination of a history of a relationship, that stands the trials of what time, life, and the lovers do to it.

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.