Queer Space in "Lan Yu" (2001): A Reflection

“This paradoxical space - this space of disappearance and emergence outside the camera’s normative visual logics - [is] the queer space of China” (Eng, 462)

This quotation helped better my understanding of sexuality in the film Lan Yu (Stanley Kwan, 2001, Hong Kong) as it addresses the visual aspects of the film directly in relation to concepts of sexuality and queerness. During my first viewing of the film, I did recognize this concept of disappearance and emergence in the technical/formal aspects of the film but did not know how it was to be understood. This quotation helped to explain these formal choices in the film in relation to its narrative and the relationship between the characters. 

One technical aspect in which disappearance and emergence is present in the film is the way in which the characters are often framed or viewed through window or door frames. As the quotation describes it, this way of filming goes outside of normative visual logics - that is, it is not the common way of filming someone on screen, especially not to the extent of which this technique is used throughout the entirety of the film. By consistently framing the two main characters, Lan Yu and Handong, through different frames, meaning is created in relation to their relationship and, more specifically, their queerness. Early on in the film, they are typically framed this way during moments of physical intimacy at a time when their relationship is mostly physical due to Handong not recognizing, or admitting, his feelings for Lan Yu. This framing reflects their relationship, as it creates a separation and disconnect between the spectator and the characters, similarly to the disconnect between the characters.

In this way, non-normative visual logics create this space of disappearance and emergence; while the pair is physically together on screen, creating the emergence for queerness in film through their inherently queer relationship, there is a separation/discrepancy between their feelings which creates an aspect of disappearance. This disappearance can be seen in the differences in their emotions for one another, as well as a representative disappearance for the queer feelings Handong harbours for Lan Yu which he does not allow to emerge.

As their relationship progresses and Handong eventually recognizes his feelings for Lan Yu, these framings become less frequent, thus representing this emergence of queerness in the film. However, this changes once again at the end of the film when Handong goes to see Lan Yu’s dead body. The first part of this moment is completely silent, with the camera once again looking in on Handong’s moment of grieving through the window into the autopsy room. The silence in conjunction with this previously established separative form of framing the character functions as a moment of disappearance; disappearance of sound, disappearance of Lan Yu himself and disappearance of their finally established relationship and thus the disappearance of the main source of queerness/queer space in the film.

The second part of the scene completely switches, however, as suddenly the loud sobs of Handong become audible and the camera moves in closer to him, once again shedding away the ‘through the window’ framing, and thus creating the explicit emergence of Handong’s queer identity and his true feelings for Lan Yu. This concept of disappearance and emergence works in tandem with non-normative visual logics of the camera to create the queer space of China, at least in the context of this film, and this is evident throughout Lan Yu and Handong’s relationship and is furthered emphasized in the final scene of Lan Yu’s death.