Lan Yu
藍宇 〜情熱の嵐〜
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
A businessman and a student across the Tiananmen decade; shot in Beijing without permits, unreleasable in China.
Beijing, 1988. Chen Handong, the son of a senior official and a successful businessman, keeps his desire for men hidden from almost everyone. Through one of his employees he meets Lan Yu, a poor architecture student from the northeast who needs money and has agreed to sell a night. For Chen it is a purchase. For Lan Yu, whose first experience it is, it is the beginning of love. Chen keeps him at a distance with money and gifts, and when Lan Yu finds him seducing another young man, he leaves.
On the night of 4 June 1989, while the army clears Tiananmen Square and gunfire echoes through the city, Chen goes out looking for Lan Yu and finds him, shaken but alive. They are together again. Chen still will not commit himself, but he gives Lan Yu time as well as money, a car and a house in the suburbs for his graduation, and lives with him there half in secret. Pressed by his family to marry, Chen marries Lin Jingping, a translator who helped him close a deal with the Russians. Lan Yu leaves the house, which is in his name, and disappears.
The marriage falls apart. Almost ten years after they first met, Chen catches sight of Lan Yu at an airport, and an invitation to a home-cooked meal brings them back together, this time as a couple. Then Chen's company falls under suspicion of smuggling and money laundering, and with his father dead there is no one to protect him. Lan Yu sells the house and everything Chen ever gave him, and uses the money to get him released. They begin again, sure of each other at last. The next day Lan Yu is killed in an accident on a building site.
The film opens three years later, with Chen still grieving, looking back.
Starring
Hu Junas Chen Handong
A closeted Beijing businessman, son of a senior official, who buys a night with a student and learns too slowly that he loves him.
Chen Handong’s story
Chen is the son of a senior official, rich, and hides his desire for men from almost everyone. He pays for a night with Lan Yu, then keeps the student at a distance with money and gifts until Lan Yu catches him seducing a young athlete and walks out. On 4 June 1989 he goes out through the gunfire to find him, and afterwards gives him a car and a house, where they live half in secret. Pressed by his family, he marries Lin Jingping, and Lan Yu disappears. After the marriage fails, a chance meeting brings them back together as a couple. Arrested for smuggling, he is freed with the money Lan Yu raises by selling everything he gave him. The next day Lan Yu is killed on a building site. Three years later Chen is still grieving.
Liu Yeas Lan Yu
A poor architecture student from the northeast who falls in love with Chen on their first night and never stops.
Lan Yu’s story
Lan Yu has come to Beijing from the northeast to study architecture, needs money, and agrees to sell a night. It is his first, and he falls in love. Chen answers with money and gifts, and when Lan Yu finds him seducing a young athlete, he leaves. On the night of 4 June 1989 Chen finds him in the streets, shaken, and they are together again; he accepts the car and the house, though all he wants is Chen there with him. When Chen marries, he leaves the house and vanishes. Years later a chance meeting at an airport brings them together as a couple at last. When Chen is arrested, Lan Yu sells everything Chen ever gave him to get him released. The next day he is killed in an accident on a building site.
Su Jinas Lin Jingping
A translator who helps Chen negotiate a deal with the Russians and becomes, briefly, his wife.
Why it matters
Lan Yu was made independently and without the Chinese government's approval by Stanley Kwan, a Hong Kong director who is openly gay, from an anonymous novel that had circulated on the internet. It sets a love between two men in contemporary Beijing across the most sensitive date in modern Chinese history: on the night of 4 June 1989, a man who has treated his lover as a purchase goes out into the gunfire to find him. Its real subject is time, how long it takes a man to admit what he feels in a society that gives him every reason not to, and every privilege to buy his way out of feeling it. Liu Ye won best actor at the Golden Horse Awards in Taiwan. One critic called the ending abrupt and punishing; it leaves Chen with the knowledge that he understood too late.