Lan Yu (2001) on Netflix
Lan Yu studies architecture and has no money. Through an acquaintance he is drawn into prostitution and introduced to Chen Handong, a businessman who wants sex without ties.
- Netflix3.5/5
- IMDb7.2/103,453 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes68%
Trailer
Plot summary
Beijing in the late 1980s. Chen Handong is a successful businessman who keeps his private life hidden. Li Zheng works for him and is among the few who know he sleeps with men. Li Zheng brings him Lan Yu, a poor architecture student from the northeast who needs money and has been talked into selling himself. Lan Yu spends that night with the older man instead of the one he came to meet, and the encounter stirs something in him beyond a transaction. Chen Handong wants sex with no attachment, and he tries to hold the young man at a distance by paying for things.
Cast
- Li Shuangas Weidong
- Jingyi Liuas Liu Dali
Show all 13 cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Lan Yu (2001)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Lan Yu is based on the Chinese novel Beijing Story, whose author was identified only as Beijing Comrade. It was published anonymously on the Internet because no mainland Chinese publisher would have printed a story with positive gay characters, explicit sex scenes and a Tiananmen Square reference, and the author would not have been safe from reprisals.
- Director Stanley Kwan shot the 2001 film Lan Yu, a romantic and tragic love story between two men, in Beijing without any government permission.
- Lan Yu got a brief mainland Chinese run at Peking University in December 2001, part of an event billed as China's First Gay Film Festival. Publicity was mostly limited to the university's website, yet every scheduled screening of the film sold out.
