BLUE GATE CROSSING
aka LANSE DA MEN

Year: 2002
USA: Strand Releasing
UK: Peccadillo Pictures
Cast: Bo-lin Chen, Lun-mei Guey, Shu-hui Liang
Director: Chin-yen Yee
Countries: Taiwan / France
Language: Taiwanese (English Subtitles)
USA: 85 mins
UK: 83 mins
UK Certificate: 12A contains one moderate sex reference
USA Release Date: 21 November 2003 (Limited Release - New York)
UK Release Date: 30 July 2004 (Limited Release)
UK Release Date: 2 July 2004 (Limited Release - London)

Synopsis

BLUE GATE CROSSING is about teenage crushes. The tomboyish Meng Kerou is sometimes serious, but her schoolgirl silliness unleashes itself when she's with her close girlfriend, Lin Yuezhen. So far so good, but Meng Kerou has the hots for Zhang Shihao, the sexy boy on the swim team. One evening when Zhang sneaks into the pool to do laps, he confronts Kerou who tells him that her friend likes him. He thinks 'the friend' is imaginary and the Kerou is coming on to him. Of course, she's already enlightened to her enchanting desires for women, so it's fair to say she's looking to do her laps elsewhere...

There's an unforeseen twist in the film that goes unchallenged-but it's what makes the film so enjoyable. While some films try to knock you over the head with 'unique' characters and twists, Chih-Yen Yee is unapologetic, allowing for a natural flow of unconventional perspectives. The technique is effective. After all, haven't we all swam-or continue to swim-in the pool of adolescence, struggling to fit in, wrestling with demons, and trying to just stay afloat?