Set in Beijing in 1988, middle-aged Chen Handong (Jun Hu) is a successful businessman, the eldest son of a senior government bureaucrat. He heads a fast-growing trading company and plays as hard as he works. Few know that Handong's tastes run more to boys than girls. Lan Yu (Liu Ye) is a country boy, newly arrived in Beijing to study architecture. Like most students, he is short of money and willing to try anything to earn some. Liu Zheng (Huatong Li) suggests that he could prostitute himself for one night to a gay pool-hall and bar owner. But Handong happens to be in the pool hall that evening, and he nixes the deal. He takes Lan Yu home himself and gives the young man what turns out to be a life-changing sexual initiation.
Handong and Lan Yu meet often, and the boy is soon very secure in his love for the man. While Lan Yu falls in love, Handong tries his best to avoid emotional attachment, showering Lan Yu with expensive gifts. However, as the years go by, Handong realizes that he cannot live without Lan Yu. Handong wants a play-mate, not a lifelong companion, and warns Lan Yu that they will eventually break up. Lan Yu is undeterred, until the night he catches Handong with another boy.
They meet again on the night of June 4th, 1989 . Handong goes looking for Lan Yu, worried that he might have been caught up in the army's murderous sweep through Tiannmen Square. He gives Lan Yu his most lavish gifts yet--a newly built villa on the outskirts of Beijing and a car--and they begin living together as a couple. However, Handong again shies away from his feelings for the boy. He begins a whirlwind romance with Lin Jingping (Jin Su), a professional translator who has helped his company in trade negotiations with Russians, and marries her. Lan Yu moves away and Handong loses contact with him. Before long, Handong is divorced.
He runs into Lan Yu by chance at the airport one day, and an invitation to try Lan Yu's home cooking leads to a resumption of their relationship. At last Handong learns to feel and show commitment to his lover--just when his company comes under investigation for smuggling and illegal fund-raising. Handong is facing long-term imprisonment, possibly worse, but to the delight of his sister Yonghong (Fang Lu) and her husband Daning (Yongning Zhang), he is bailed out by Lan Yu. The boy sells the villa and the car and pools the proceeds with his own savings--yielding enough to get Handong out of trouble. Finally, Handong and Lan Yu can be happy together. But fate can play cruel tricks.
"Lan Yu" is a beautifully filmed, impressionistic look at a human dilemma: not recognizing what you really want until it's too late. Based on a very popular 1997 "E-novel" known as the "Beijing Story" by an anonymous internet author, it was filmed in Beijing without government permission, and uses the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989 and the shady dealings of the country's business elite as central plot devices. Casting is ideal, and the sex scenes are presented with honesty, sensuality, and without ambiguity. But it's sexual and political frankness have made it virtually unreleasable in China. The story is rather melodramatic and the ending is too abrupt. However, it received rave reviews, internet comments are uniformly favorable, and it won some awards. Yadong Zhang composed the incidental music, Jimmy Ngai wrote the screenplay, and Stanley Kwan directed. In Mandarin Chinese with English subtitles.
