#fandy fan

Ko Chia Yen & Yang Chin Hua at the Golden Bell Awards 2025

Oh, okay. Let's do this. *cracks knuckles*

我在這裡等你 | A Balloon's Landing (2024)

(Note: this movie makes me feel indescribable, to the point that I'm either laying down staring at my ceiling or mindlessly shitposting about it and there's no in-between, so I hope this ends up coherent.)

A Balloon's Landing is a Taiwanese drama film directed by Angel Teng, first released in May 2024 and named for the song 青夏秋冬 | A Balloon's Journey by Leslie Cheung. (Leslie is relevant to this movie. I will not explain how.) It stars Terrance Lau, whom I've posted about for things like Twilight of the Warriors: Walled in and a couple different dramas, and Fandy Fan, who is known for HIStory2 and Oh No! Here Comes Trouble on this site.

The film begins with Hong Kong novel writer Gu Tin-yu (Terrance Lau) leaving behind his career and a life that's slowly losing meaning to him to go to Taiwan, on a desperate search for a place he was once told about called the Bay of Disappearing Whales. Once on the island, an ill-advised series of events results in Tin-yu meeting Zhong Yixiang (Fandy Fan), a friendly-but-clearly-hiding-something gangster who promises to guide him to that mysterious bay. The two end up travelling together and becoming closer on an unpredictable journey, one which eventually leads Tin-yu back to the events of one of his own novels and Yixiang's own past.

I... actually find it difficult to directly lay out and describe this movie? It's part fun roadtrip, part magic realism, part tracing how a man re-finds something that sparks joy in his life. It's got the bittersweetness of missed chances, and the ache of queer yearning. It's also very vibes based, especially as the story progesses. Between that and the twists that make me reluctant to say too much, you have to just go along for the ride and see for yourself.

Touching on more technical aspects, A Balloon's Landing is visually gorgeous. Shoutout to the people on here who've made gifsets such as this one, and here's a bit of Yixiang if you want; the cinematography is beautiful and I'm glad it's being appreciated. I haven't watched this movie in months (and honestly am probably due a rewatch), but I remember the music also being very fitting.

And I need to give Terrance and Fandy their dues here for carrying this movie. These two became incredibly good friends over the course of filming (Terrance calls Fandy the first friend he ever made in Taiwan), and it shows in their fantastic chemistry onscreen. These two are what make the emotions of this story gradually build up and work, and by the end of the movie it's worth it for them. I very, very badly want to see these two act opposite together again.

Before I wrap this up, though, I want to make something clear. It's the same reason I'm not linking the trailer, because the marketing was the source of many people's wrong initial expectations going into this movie and I'm shaking the marketing team for fumbling it this badly. So: A Balloon's Landing is not a BL movie, in that it does not set out to do the same things as media deliberately set in the BL genre. But is it a queer movie? Absolutely. Unless you just have no media comprehension.

Okay! That's all. If you're interested, A Balloon's Landing is currently (as of July 2025) available to watch on Netflix worldwide. Now here's some of Tin-yu and Yixiang:

starring: Fandy Fan and Terrance Lau, in cinemas May 10th