Blue Gate Crossing

This exquisite teenage romance from Taiwan does not run smoothly, which reflects, better than a thousand happy-ever-afters, the true state of the adolescent psyche.

Nothing is clear, as love should be. Everything is in flux, especially feelings. Kerou's best friend Yuezhen decides one day that she fancies "the boy in the coloured shirt," because he looks cute and stands out amongst the others playing basketball.

Kerou is inveigled into arranging a meeting, which reluctantly she agrees to do. The boy's name is Shihao and he's in the school swimming team. He doesn't believe that Yuezhen exists and thinks it's Kerou who fancies him. He flirts with her and the more she rejects him, the keener he becomes.

The character of Kerou, beautifully played by Lun-mei Guey, is a fascinating mixture of emotional confusion and seriousness. She thinks she likes girls and is infatuated with Yuezhen, who is much prettier than her, but is too afraid to say anything.

You could call Chih-yen Yee's film a love story with bicycles. It touches delicately upon the freedom of youthful expression, as well as the frustration of the heart's desire. Seldom has innocence been captured with such unsentimental intelligence. To label it gay, or pigeonhole it in the rom-com teen section, would miss the point.

Life at 17 changes like the wind and so Kerou bends to the rhythm of her feelings. Who is to say yes? Who is to say no? As she asks at the end, "What will we be in six years time?"

When you are young, the world lies before you like a map of promises. There is no certainty which one will come true, if any.

At Blue Gate Crossing, the lights are green.