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.
Review of Lan Yu
