A young, gay student from the countryside arrives in Beijing and falls in love with an older businessman who is undecided as to what life he wants to lead.
A sweet and sour, beautiful, yet thought-provoking drama! The story’s beauty lies in its simplicity, in the complexity of romance. Contradictory, isn’t it? It’s because we are. And so are human relationships. The ancient source of artistic inspiration, the expression of feelings – or lack thereof – will always be contemporary, and the more we turn a blind eye to it, the more we will have to face it.
Lan Yu (Ye Liu) and Chen Handong (Jun Hu) fall in love despite their efforts not to, but the heart hardly ever abides by our mind’s decisions. Ironically, the cause of the drama is Chen, the more mature and experienced of the two, who doesn’t even know what he doesn’t want. Therefore, when life presents the choice, he only blows past it and moves on. But does he? Life works in mysterious ways, and when he least expects it, time reveals opportunities he was too blind to see in the past.
From a filmmaking point of view, the narrative is constantly restricted, so from beginning to end, what you know or think you know as an audience is what the heroes do and vice versa, which increases the suspense as much as it increases the tension. Writer Jimmy Ngai and director Stanley Kwan, based on an anonymous novel published online, bring to life a provoking drama that will make you question your life’s choices and ask the one simple question that, as much as we would all love to, we’ll never find an answer. What if…
An all-around applause for Kwan, Liu, Hu, and all the cast and crew who challenge their political system and cultural norms through art and keep the fire of unconditional and unrestricted forward-thinking burning.
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