2046

[skylee]

This is from the latest issue of Time -> 2046: A Film Odyssey

[skylee]

I saw it today. It is an easy-to-understand, beautiful, very romantic and melancholy, and enjoyable film. I think the story between Kimura Takuya and Faye Wong is the most likeable (it is hard not to like Kimura, no matter if he is acting seriously or in jest in SMAPxSMAP) as it seems pure and hopeful (the reality part) (the fantasy part is hopelessly sad). The film has too much narration and is a bit too long for my taste.

There are a lot of references to the other Wong Kar-wai films. IMHO one might enjoy this film better if one knows the background stories (though not necessarily). First you have to watch 阿飛正傳 (Days of being wild), so that you would know what has happened between Lulu (Carina Lau) and Su Lizhen (Meggie Cheung) and the Philipino Chinese boyfriend/the bird without legs (the late Leslie Cheung). And you would note that Tony Leung appears in the last, the oddest and the most charming scene (he is just getting dressed, no dialogue at all), which is totally unrelated to the whole story.

Then you have to watch 花樣年華 (In the mood for love), so that you would know what has happened between Su Lizhen and Zhou Muyun (Tony Leung), and what's with the "bury-your-secrets-in-a-hole-of-a-tree" reference.

I think I like "2046", but need some time to digest it.

[Quest]

I will have to wait for the *dvd* version.

[fernando]

With a film like this where sound design and cinematography is so important, watching on a television just doesn't do it justice!

I watched Hero on "dvd" back then and didn't like it.

when it came to Toronto and I saw it in the theatre I was blown away.

[skylee]

Some other comments -> here.

[roddy]

Saw this today, and really enjoyed it. I think I'm going to have to go back again after rewatching the other films it draws on in order to understand it fully though. Still enjoyable though, even if you haven't seen the others - cast is great, beautifully filmed.

Roddy

PS Faye Wong Robots! Roll on 2046!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[skylee]

Glad that you like it. But I sort of fell asleep the second time I watched it when the story returned to Gong Li and Zhang Ziyi at the end.

But don't you think the music is great? I am looking for the soundtrack CD.

[roddy]

Saw it again today. I think I've now figured out who 80% of the women are, but there are still a few whose role I'm not quite sure about. I also spotted that Dong Jie, the skinny blind girl from Happy Times is in it, as the guesthouse owners second daughter (she's possibly also an android, and maybe even turns up in a Singaporean gambling den, I might not have noticed )

Still a great film second time around, and I knew when to laugh this time.

Roddy

[heianderen]

I don't know nothing about this film, but it looks like "Blade Runner" a lot.

[roddy]

Yeah, the future bits feature a lot more in the trailer than they do in the actual film - don't go expecting Blade Runner again . . .

Roddy

[bhchao]

After seeing these positive reviews on the board, I am dying to see this film now. Too bad the film won't be released in the States until late next year (the earliest)

[Ian_Lee]

I haven't seen 2046 yet.

But I am interested in one reaction: Who fell asleep watching Wong's movies?

I am honest. Let me confess first:

I fell asleep in watching the following Wong's movies:

春光乍洩, 花樣年華, 東邪西毒, 重慶森林

The only Wong movie that I have watched in entirety:

阿飛正傳

And do most audience understand what Wong tries to convey in his movies?

[sinomaniac]

With that said, I really liked 2046. I have seen the other movies it sort of blends with, In the Mood for Love and Days of Being Wild. I was waiting and waiting for this one to come out. What do I love about the Wong Kar Wai movies? They are romantically made, but ironically, the subject matter is the antithesis of romance.

Let's take 2046 for example. The exchange between Zhang Ziyi's character and Tony Leung's character is this petty, account keeping, selfish taking relationship on both ends. Both him and her want to keep the upper hand that they might use it against the other. We can see that the love-making is purely erotic. Love, when defined as a selfless act of giving to the other, is purely absent from this exchange.

Tony Leung's character is almost identical to Jacky Cheung's character in Days of Being Wild. He is a womanizer. And unapologetically so. The women in his life are there at his discretion. 2046 is a place where this man, the hopeless lover, believes he could be set free by a single selfless act his beloved. But, perhaps a statement about why men must never become so hopeless, her (the Japanese guy's lover) silence in real life is reflected by her inability to transcend her servantile state. She has given herself over to the life of a servant. In real life she serves the wishes of her disaproving father, in 2046 it is this train.

There is so much more in 2046. But, generally it portrays this broken world we live in. It is a world where noone is capable of truly loving selflessly. And Wong's final statement upon that is that we must keep riding forward on the train. Is that the best we can come up with?

[Jive Turkey]

There is so much more in 2046. But, generally it portrays this broken world we live in. It is a world where noone is capable of truly loving selflessly. And Wong's final statement upon that is that we must keep riding forward on the train. Is that the best we can come up with?

That's not at all what I got from it. My wife and I both agreed that the message of the movie was: "Maggie Cheung is such a hottie that if you don't shag her when you have a chance, then you'll be a miserable bastard and regret your mistake for the rest of your life." In my opinion, though, the sex scenes with Zhang Ziyi more than made up for the lack of such scenes in In the Mood for Love.

[geraldc]

That's not at all what I got from it. My wife and I both agreed that the message of the movie was: "Maggie Cheung is such a hottie that if you don't shag her when you have a chance, then you'll be a miserable bastard and regret your mistake for the rest of your life."

But I thought he did shag her. I thought the kid at the end of "in the mood for love" was his, and that the secret whispered to the tree was the fact that the 2 of them had had a physical relationship.

I wonder how many people were able to watch 2046 without any subtitles, i.e. fluency in Cantonese, Mandarin and Japanese.

[ChouDoufu]

did they do it in in the mood for love? I think in Wong's mind they did. He cut all of the sex scenes from the movie. But in doing that he also created the possibility that they didn't have sex, didn't let their relationship become physical.

Any one in beijing got a hand on a copy with cantonese/mandarin/japanese?

i'm going to have to watch it again. I didn't like it as much as ITMFL.

[Zingaro]

I saw 2046 in a Shenzhen theater last month, a few weeks after it had opened. Chinese and Japanese subtitles, but not English. I could follow the story with my very limited Chinese, but I really liked the film.

Purchased the DVD with English subtitles in Shenzhen, and now enjoy it even more. Beautiful to watch, beautiful soundtrack, intriguing story (based on the novel).

Can't wait until it opens in the US so I can see it again in the theater.

[skylee]

intriguing story (based on the novel).

Is there a novel on the film? Or did you mean the novel in the film?

[Zingaro]

Is there a novel on the film? Or did you mean the novel in the film?

The film is based on a novel. I believe it's the same name.

[skylee]

The film is based on a novel.

I doubt it. But it doesn't matter.