A FILM ADAPTED from a sexually explicit underground novel published on the Internet about a sizzling gay relationship that overlaps the Tiananmen Square massacre has all the elements that scream out for an official ban on the mainland. That a project like this could raise finance (albeit from private investors in Hong Kong), be completed in China and make it all the way to the Cannes Film Festival with very little fuss is a feat in itself.
So, it is no surprise that director of Lan Yu, Stanley Kwan Kam-pang, and its producer Zhang Yongning are looking more than a little pleased with themselves these days. They have now, after all, produced what is probably China's first underground film after months of furtive shooting on interior sets and equally surreptitious outdoor filming.
'There was a bit of guerilla film-making involved because we didn't get official permission to film. I won't tell you how or where we shot the film, but we did have to use some ingenuity, especially with the interior sets,' says Kwan.
The film is based on a trilogy of stories collectively named Beijing Story, originally published on a mainland Web site. Penned by an anonymous writer going by the name of Beijing Tongzhi (Comrade), the story tells of Chen Handong, the son of a bureaucrat, who meets country boy Lan Yu one night at a pool hall and takes him home for a night of initiation.
While Lan Yu becomes completely devoted to Handong, the latter is cautious about entering a long-term relationship, preferring to keep the boy at a distance with expensive gifts. After several misunderstandings they break up and Handong takes a wife because he wants a family. But fate keeps throwing Lan Yu and Handong together over the next 10 years.
Zhang was first introduced to the novel by friends in Beijing, where it had become an underground hit. He says he initially found the novel a little explicit, but eventually was moved to tears.
