Hu Jun

Liu Ye

Li Shuang

Fang Lu

Shaohua Zhang

Yongning Zhang

Su Jin

Du He

Li Bin

Jingyi Liu

Zhang Fan

Zhao Minfen

Li Huatong

Stanley Kwan Kam-Pang

Beijing Comrade

Wang Xueyi

William Chang

Zhang Jian

Tao Yang

Yadong Zhang

Jimmy Ngai Shiu-Yan

Qin Jian

Niu Le

Drama

Romance

蓝宇

Yongning Creation Workshop

Kwan's Creation Workshop

China

Hong Kong

CinemaSerf

This actually starts off rather seedily, I thought! A handsome young student "Lan Yu" (Ye Liu) is working in a restaurant where some of his colleagues discuss the idea of renting him out! It's the wealthy "Chen Handong" (Jun Hu) who gets the privilege and initially their's is the most transactional of relationships. The older man is an highly successful businessman and the younger one, a would-be architect who lives a basic lifestyle. Against the odds, perhaps, the two men start to bond and even though "Chen" is an ostensibly upstanding, straight, member of the community there is the distinct scent of love in the air. What now ensues condenses quite a lot of their lives - ups and downs for both men, even a conforming marriage - into the story of their sometimes quite turbulent relationship before a conclusion that I really didn't like!! That strength of disappointment with the ending, I think, is testament to two strong performances and a story that draws you in. You start off feeling a bit sorry for "Lan Yu", but gradually thereafter you begin to feel more invested in him as a person, and then with his lover and then with both as the characterisations blossom in a plausible fashion. There is a strong supporting cast of characters who help diffuse the tension at times, but when it is just the two on screen then this makes for one of the better gay romantic dramas that I've seen.

普通话

Lan Yu

Odyssey: a Chinese cinema season | Lan Yu 4K | Official Trailer