2046 (2004)

Director: Wong Kar-Wai
Starring: Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Li Gong, Takuya Kimura, Faye Wong, Ziyi Zhang

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With 2046, Wong Kar-Wai furthers his artistic study of unrequited love. Just as Wong Kar-Wai's Fallen Angels extends his work on Chungking Express, 2046 is the un-official sequel to In the Mood for Love. All of these films have a bittersweet quality to them. Wong Kar-Wai instills a kind of innocent yet ironic comedy in the coming and going of his characters and of lovers perfect for one another but who meet too early or too late or consistently just miss meeting one another. Wong Kar-Wai's stories obsess over time but only time defined as "too late" or simply being the "wrong time".

The events in the film revolve around the number 2046, hence the title of the film. The movie was originally intended to be a futuristic sci-fi film set one year before China will grant Hong Kong its independence. There are still elements of that in the film, but 2046 is not a time. In both parts of the story--the fiction and the fiction within the fiction--2046 is a place. It's at once a kind of futuristic love hotel and a 1960's apartment number. In both cases, it's where one futilely turns for love.

The actors in the film are a who's who of Hong Kong cinema. All are accomplished actors, and all are gorgeous. The look of the film is something between Alphaville and In the Mood for Love. The portion of the film with Tony Leung plays as a straight sequel to Kar-Wai's previous film while the futuristic part continues his Godardian references in both the style and tone of his films.

While Kar-Wai doesn't break any new thematical ground with 2046, he further refines what he's started with his films for the past ten years. For fans of French New Wave. For appreciators of quirky, intelligent comedy. For general lovers of cinema. It's not a can't miss, but you really shouldn't.

February 11
apartment PC, late night

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