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 have waded through some pretty sniffy comments on how ordinary this movie is. Admittedly, it is a little like Love Story, with Ali MacGraw, which WAS banal and boring, badly acted and badly filmed (boy meets girl, boy gets girl, girl dies). The setting in Lan Yu, however, with its awesome director, lift it way out of the ordinary. Never mind the snide reviews. These actors are hot!

Before my comments about Lan Yu, first some comments on the "comments".First of all, I don't really understand how someone can call the relationship/love affair in this movie "stereotypical". Or put it another way, does it really matter? Two-third of movies produced are either about "straight" relationship, or of stories surrounding it. When we go to see a movie strictly about boy-and-girl falling in love, do we immediately say the relationship is so "stereotypical" just because the movie is about the relationship? Why it seems that a gay movie about a gay relationship HAS to somehow have something more to be non-stereotypical? If everytime we go to see something like, say, "Tricks" we have to say, "ah, so stereotypical", you might as well avoid the lot if it. If you find the gay relationship in this film stereotypical it is probably because they are human too.Second, why internationally acclaimed directors from Asia have to somehow show more (Asian) characters to "worth the praise"? World cinema is a global scene - if someone in Asia can make as good a movie as his/her French, German, US counterpart while not inventing anything new or introducing any "Eastern" elements, why can't s/he still deserve the same level of international (aka Western) recognition? In other words, why can't Stanley Kwan get the recognition by recycling Western ideas and technique to tell a wonderfully crafted story in a beautifully understated movie?Back to the movie - it's a great one because Kwan was making something that is very close to his heart. The direction is close to flawless and he (and the writer) has very successfully limited the scope to focus on the two leads and their relationship with all other important outside elements (economic development in China, corruption, etc) and major historical events (June 4, etc) as background. Examples of outstanding scenes include the night of June 4 when Handong (Hu Jun) was driving in his car looking anxiously for Lan Yu (Liu Ye), who has obviously participated in the student protest. It was done tasteful with just the right level of drama and hints to tell you the state of both characters' minds.Kwan's major talent, IMHO, is on directing actors. No matter what one says about "Center Stage", his milestone, he has successfully transferred Maggie Cheung from a "flower pot" (actress with no brain) to an international acclaimed actress. Hu and Liu also got their big break from Kwan - I know now as I have a chance to watch some of Hu's TV drama series in which he plays the typical and boring macho cop. The sparkle between them in the film is simply brilliant - from the few playful/romantic bedroom scenes to Hu's visit to the hospital to identify the dead body of Liu.And too bad if you don't like seeing Lau Yu being killed at the end - it's in the book.

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.