2046
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Movie Reviews of 2046
Movie Review: beautiful
Summary: 5 Stars
a smoothly sultry film. mildly sexy, but i don't think eroticly so. simply a pleasure to watch.Movie Review: Beautiful
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie is so beautiful.
I did not want it to ever end.
Movie Review: 2046 masterful !
Summary: 5 Stars
2046 it's a superb film
and Wong Kar Wai is a true master!
Movie Review: Audacious, Vibrant Filmmaking Drives and Meanders Though a Multi-Layered Plotline
Summary: 4 Stars
Like Fernando Meirelles, Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar-wai comes up with visually arresting, highly kinetic films that strike emotional chords with audiences that transcend individual cultures. What strikes me most about this 2004 film is the feverish sexual energy that Wong generates throughout, even though the narrative ellipses in the story can frequently be frustrating to track. In sharing the same central character, struggling writer Chow Mo-wan, the movie is a partial sequel to Wong's acclaimed 2000 film, "In the Mood for Love", picking up Chow several months later in the same Hong Kong hotel after his sojourn to Cambodia. However, it really isn't critical you see the earlier film before this one.
Chow is a significantly changed man, rather embittered and far more misogynistic than before but haunted by memories far deeper than the failed love affair of the first movie. Chow initially hopes to rent the very same room (2046), but since it's not ready for occupancy, he settles for the one next door (2047). Not only does the room 2046 become elusive to Chow, but it becomes the imagined, futuristic destination in Chow's science-fiction story where people can search for their lost memories. There is yet a third meaning to the number, as it is also the year when control of Hong Kong will fully revert back to mainland China. Wong encompasses this numerical device by cleverly going back and forth between Chow's affairs with several beautiful women and scenes from his invented sci-fi story in which a man finds himself falling for an android stewardess. The multi-layering story structure is a high-wire move for Wong, especially when the film opens confusingly with a Japanese narrator. In fact, various characters speak Cantonese, Mandarin and Japanese to each other with perfect comprehension. Most -though not all - the pieces coalesce by the end, but the journey there is worthwhile with some truly memorable sequences.
Same as the first film, Tony Leung Chiu Wai plays Chow but this time, plays him as a world-weary, predatory philanderer in the way Bogart or Gable did in the 1940's, an emotional cipher indifferent to the women he meets as he is convalescing from the failure of finding his one true love. Although Maggie Cheung comes back from the first film in a wordless cameo, Wong has recruited four of China's leading actresses to play the women who come in and out of Chow's world - Gong Li as Su Li Zhen, the mysterious gambler from Singapore who wears one black glove and the coincidental namesake of Chow's love; Carina Lau as Lulu, the mouthy prostitute; Faye Wong as Wang Jing Wen, the eldest daughter of Chow's landlord, as well as an almost anime-looking robotic object of desire in the sci-fi story; and Ziyi Zhang as Bai Ling, the upscale Hong Kong dance hostess conflicted about her feelings.
All four actresses make vivid impressions, although unsurprisingly, Li and Zhang stand out in roles that are almost the polar opposites of their respective roles in Rob Marshall's "Memoirs of a Geisha". With her luxuriant beehive and pensive manner, Li bristles with pained passion, especially in her farewell scene. Zhang displays the unbridled sexual energy and open-hearted regret required for her role. As Wang Jing Wen's boyfriend and the protagonist of the sci-fi story, red-haired Takuya Kimura makes his moments count. Mixing imagery that recalls "Blade Runner", "2001: A Space Odyssey" and Japanese anime, the computer graphics of the sci-fi sequences are impressively rendered by a French special effects company, BUF. The best sequences, however, take place in 1960's Hong Kong where Wong captures the tawdriness and eroticism of the atmosphere with fierce authority on a muted palette of vibrant colors. This is audacious filmmaking, but a greater focus on the story structure could have really helped.
The DVD package surprisingly has no ongoing audio commentary from the filmmaker, which I think would have been helpful given the narrative ellipses in the story. As compensation, there is an illuminating 30-minute making-of featurette, which includes interviews with Wong and most of the principal cast except Li. There are additional interviews with Leung and Wong, who speak fluent English, as well as Zhang who is subtitled. As part of his creative process, Wong doesn't work with a final script, and each provides an in-depth analysis how it worked and often frustrated the actors, a particular challenge for Zhang who never worked with Wong before. Their comments also help explain the idiosyncratic casting and the motivation for key scenes, such as the significance of Chow paying a restaurant bill for Bai and himself in ten-dollar bills. Also included is a short on the genesis of the computer animation. Additionally, there are two deleted scenes, both intriguing, and a very brief alternate ending that makes an attempt to merge the two stories. There is also an excellent feature which focuses on the film's diverse music and of course, previews for other from Sony Pictures Classics.
Movie Review: The Good, the Bad, and the Well, there is no Ugly
Summary: 4 Stars
I didn't want this film to end, because (1) I loved the visual style and the actors/actresses in the film, and (2) I had no idea what the heck was going on in the movie.
First, the good. This guy (Kar Wai Wong) is a visionary as a director. He has a stunning eye, and I was totally in love with the visuals in the movie after the first five minutes. I did watch the commentary features where they discussed that when the film was debuted at Cannes the special effects were not even completed, but the simple lines attracted Mr. Wong's eye and changes were made to incorporate more of this linear style for the final version of the film. This is a film to be savored simply for its world construct, both present, past, and future.
Secondly, the bad. The plot was difficult to follow, and it will take multiple viewing to sort some of it out. I first assumed the movie was set in the year 2046, and Tony Leung as Chow Mo Wan wanted to escape the boring present of that age by going back in time to the late 1960s. Then I read that, no, the world of 2046 was actually just a science fiction story that the characters may or may not appear in, but definitely female androids/robots did exist (deliciously beautiful, I might add). People come and go, a murder may or may not have happened, Tony Leung may be Chinese or he may morph into a Japanese character in 2046. Additionally, the protagonist and/or his love interests tend to stay in hotels in rooms 2046 or 2047. There's a woman who may be missing a hand, or maybe not, but either brings good luck, cheats, or has terrible luck herself. Whew!
Now, for the ugly. Well, in a film this sumptuous, there really isn't any ugly at all. There is a mysterious symbol that appears occasionally, sort of a big flower or fungus with perhaps a hole in the middle that one can peep through (there's a lot of spying going on in the film); maybe that's a bit odd, but not ugly.
One last thing: kudos for the music in this film. I'd love to have the soundtrack, as it wanders from original music to opera to classical to jazz to traditional tunes. The atmosphere of the film would be diminished significantly without this score.
There are several bonus features in the film including interviews with Tony Leung and Zhang Ziyi, who plays the daughter of the hotel manager. Those interviews helped explain the movie to me a bit. There are also deleted scenes and an alternate ending which don't help clarify anything.
I recommend this movie for those who love beautiful movies, and are not put off by the non-linear plot. I enjoyed it, but for good or ill, it will take multiple viewings to make sense of the plot.