2001 • 86 mins

Directed by Stanley Kwan

* 20th Anniversary 4K Restoration

** Golden Horse Awards 2001:
Best Director, Best Leading Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Film Editing, Audience’s Choice Award

In Mandarin, with English subtitles

FREE ADMISSION. OPEN TO ALL USC STUDENTS, FACULTY, STAFF, ALUMNI, AND THE GENERAL PUBLIC.

HKOS Exclusive: LAN YU post-screening Q&A with Director Stanley Kwan and Professor Michael Berry

About Lan Yu

Shot clandestinely in Beijing without a government permit, Hong Kong auteur Stanley Kwan's tale of the love that blossoms between a successful businessman and a naive country boy was a daring attempt to depict gay love in a society that has yet to accept and recognize LGBTQ rights. Lan Yu (Liu Ye) is an impoverished student from the north who, desperately in need of money, agrees to a one-night-only sexual transaction, little expecting that this fateful encounter will introduce him to the love of his life: Chen Handong (Hu Jun), an international trader whose feelings for Lan Yu eventually overcome his attempt to keep him at a distance. Every time the two lovers' bodies come in contact, they know that their connection transcends purely physical desire — but what they cannot transcend is the imprisonment of socially normative judgement. Deeply romantic and profoundly tragic, Lan Yu has become an underground classic in Chinese LGBTQ communities.