Aches with melancholy.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Sep 11, 2023

"Lan Yu" exhibits the usual issues of Kwan's cinema, but the portrayal of the relationship, the acting, and the cinematography are so great, that the faults are barely noticeable in the end, in a rather excellent movie.

| Original Score: 6.5/10 | Sep 12, 2021

It's a wise, moving love story--marred only by a rather arbitrary twist of fate at the end--played out with an emotional honesty that would be unusual and adventurous in any language.

| Mar 31, 2008

This film takes the Tienanmen massacre as its subtle backdrop, so subtle that it all happens though sounds heard off-screen.

| Original Score: B+ | Jun 21, 2007

A gay love story based on an anonymous Internet novel.

| Original Score: B | Sep 27, 2006

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 6, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 31, 2005

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 7, 2003

| Original Score: C | Apr 12, 2003

The characters seem one-dimensional, and the film is superficial and will probably be of interest primarily to its target audience.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Mar 7, 2003

Seems like something American and European gay movies were doing 20 years ago.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Mar 7, 2003

Hu and Liu offer natural, matter-of-fact performances that glint with sorrow, longing and love.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 16, 2003

This delicately observed story, deeply felt and masterfully stylized, is a triumph for its maverick director.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 8, 2002

A nicely constructed film with an unusual, though not unheard-of theme for Chinese cinema.

| Nov 2, 2002

Lan Yu is a genuine love story, full of traditional layers of awakening and ripening and separation and recovery.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Nov 1, 2002

The movie is gorgeously made, but it is also somewhat shallow and art-conscious.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Oct 17, 2002

It's probably worth catching solely on its visual merits. If only it had the story to match.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Oct 4, 2002

It's a lovely, sad dance highlighted by Kwan's unique directing style.

| Sep 20, 2002

Assured, vital and well wrought, the film is, arguably, the most accomplished work to date from Hong Kong's versatile Stanley Kwan.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 22, 2002

The very simple story seems too simple and the working out of the plot almost arbitrary.

Full Review | Aug 22, 2002