Blue Gate Crossing (蓝色大门), dir Yee Chih-yen (易智言). 2003.
Taiwanese filmmaker Yee Chih-yen follows up his debut Lonely Hearts Club with the romantic drama Lanse Da Men (Blue Gate Crossing). Best friends Meng Ke-rou (Guey Lun-mei) and Lin Yueh-chen (Liang Shu-hui) are 17-year-old high school girls. When Yueh-chen admits she likes the boy swimming champ Chang Shih-hao (Chen Bo-lin), she talks Ke-rou into talking to him for her. But Shih-hao ends up liking Ke-rou instead, and the rest of the film develops their sweet friendship and adolescent romance. The only problem is that Ke-rou thinks she might be a lesbian because she’s in love with her best friend Yueh-chen.
The film has been well-received critically. Dennis Lim, in a review for the Village Voice, observed the film’s “meticulous framing and haunting use of repeated motifs” reflects the influence of Taiwanese New Wave directors Hou Hsiao-hsien and Edward Yang. The Portland Mercury described the film as “a modern-day Chinese lesbo twist on the old Cyrano story” that “treads new territory in the teen coming of age drama realm,” praising Yee’s “haiku-like directorial lyricism.”
Gentle and reflective, Blue Gate Crossing ultimately doesn’t make a terribly strong impact, but it does impress with its well-composed visual style and sensitive handling of bittersweet emotion.
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