| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
  Film: 2046 May 22, 2005 Reporter : Peter Thompson Director: Wong Ka Wai Watch video  Back in the days before television, when movies could only be seen in picture theatres, Asian cinema was restricted mainly to film festivals that appealed to the dedicated few. Nevertheless, it found a loyal following and directors such as Akira Kurosawa had a significant impact, even on Hollywood. Of course, in recent years, Asian movies have gone mainstream, with spectacles like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and Hero attracting big international audiences and people like Quentin Tarantino enthusiastically borrowing from them. But the big surprise is how cool Asian films have become. Hong Kong-based director Wong Ka Wai won universal acclaim for his romantic masterpiece In the Mood for Love five years ago. It's taken him all that time to come up with what can loosely be called a sequel. But 2046 is even more stylish and cutting edge than its predecessor.It helps if you've cherished memories of In the Mood for Love because you'll know that when we last saw Mr Chow, he was nursing a broken heart. His doomed love affair with Maggie Cheung's Mrs Su had ended with him muttering secrets into a hole in a wall in the Cambodian jungle. This is the new Chow. He's become a party animal and a ladies man. It's 1966, three years since the beautiful but unreachable Mrs Su disappeared from his life. She's been replaced by a series of beautiful women who, unfortunately for Mr Chow, never succeed in erasing her memory. 2046 is largely preoccupied with memory. Chow moves into the Oriental Hotel in Hong Kong because it has a room numbered 2046, just like the room where he last saw Mrs Su. But 2046 is taken, so he settles into 2047, constantly spying on his neighbours and, when they're beautiful women, as they usually are (this is a Wong Ka Wai movie, after all), he sets about seducing them.  As Wong Ka Wai says, "But the thing is, the film is actually not a story, it's almost like a journal. It's about, it's like you are travelling with this writer, you are on the same train as he did, so actually it is an experience and I'm sure audiences who have been in love before will find themselves there. You know, it is a very, very simple story to me." Simple, perhaps, but loaded with ambiguity and paradox. Chow Mo Wan is earning a living as a writer of flash trash and in his spare time he begins writing a science fiction novel called, of course, 2046. That's also when mainland China's 50-year, no-change promise to Hong Kong runs out. So people go to 2046 not to visit the future but to find their memories, because memories always stay the same. Chow fills his imaginary world with the strangers who cross his path at the Oriental. Like the young Japanese man who falls in love with the daughter of the hotel's owner, Mr Wang. Chow's characters act out the longings and frustrations of his inner life. Tak falls in love with one of the stewardesses on the train. She is, of course, Jing Wen, the hotel owner's daughter. But in 2046 she's an android who can act cute and imitate romantic behaviour but feels nothing. Wong Ka Wai has filled his film with superstars of Asian cinema. Gong Li is a black-gloved gambler who regretfully resists Chow's advances. Zhang Ziyi is a prostitute who moves into room 2046 and falls for Chow. Carina Lau is the case-hardened Lulu and singer Faye Wong is Wang Jin Wen. Wong has worked with most of them before, including Tony Leung who starred in In the Mood for Love, and he always uses the same crew, including Australian cinematographer Chris Doyle. But he freely admits to putting himself up there on the screen. Wong Ka Wai says "It's always about yourself. Today you will be intrigued by an idea when you look at the film, you think the film can have those possibilities, but somehow at the end, when you work on it, you realise it's all about yourself, yourself becomes the choice. The way you look at this material, it's the way you like this set, where you put the camera."  Wong Ka Wai knows the rules, but he breaks them with deliberate intent. 2046 is long, often hard to follow and appears to get lost in its own vanities. But I've watched it at least three times and I confess to being totally bewitched by it. The fact is, no one makes films like Wong Ka Wai. I don't think I want to see anyone imitating him but, while he's around, he's offering us a totally fresh, very witty and indescribably romantic view of the world. If this is the sort of thing you like, you'll love 2046.For movie session times, visit: ninemsn's Movie Guide |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
