2046

"哇。。。搏晒蒙!"

Wong Kar Wai's new film, 2046, finally released on DVD last december and sold out quick here in Australia. I managed to own a copy after ordering it weeks before hand and watched it last Saturday. Wong Kar Wai is not your normal kinda of director from Hong Kong. His films are normally subtle, artistic and beautiful with great script to portrait a love story. 旺角卡門 and 阿飛正傳 are both his earliest production which I could hardly remember and not even sure who he was. And then his name started to get noticed when 重慶森林 [ChungKing Express] released in 1994 with Faye Wong trying to find a pubic hair on the bedsheet. It probably was one of my most watched HK film until the song California Dreaming buzzing in my ear. I wouldn't say myself as a fan of his as I haven't really watch all the films that he has made but I do respect he who doesn't follow the market and make some slapstick HK low budget films but something more essentric and receives recognition internationally. And I do love his work like 重慶森林 [ChungKing Express], 春光乍洩 [Happy Together], 華樣年華[In the mood for love], they are all great arthouse films.

As for 2046, it is a story about a writer, He thought he wrote about the future but it really was the past. In his novel, a mysterious train left for 2046 every once in a while. Everyone who went there had the same intention ... to recapture their lost memories. It was said that in 2046, nothing ever changed. Nobody knew for sure if it was true, because nobody who went there had ever come back - except for one. He was there. He chose to leave. He wanted to change.

2046 the movie itself kinda links back to Wong Kar Wai's previous film, In the mood for love but is definitely not a sequel. Once again, the music score in the movie is essentric like others and Wong Kar Wai's filming technique can clearly be seen throughout the whole movie with slow motion on objects, strong focus point emphasizing the characteristic of each role. He definitely can rub shoulder against Jean Paul Jeunet, the director of Amelie. The 1960s backdrop is nicely done and the sci fi scene is not over exagerrated as well which I like. Not to mention the top class castings in the movie, all excellent performance in the movie. I feel sorry for the character of Carina Leung (劉家玲), and love the bitchiness of Zhang ZiYi (張子怡). I did manage to save all the high res images from the film as the cinematography definitely gets a thumb up from me.

Enough said that, after watching the movie, I felt bit confused and unsatisfied. Me and Pete exchanged weird look when the movie finishes and not quite sure what the director was trying to achieve. So, I did bit of research online and found some sypnosis of the movie and trying to understand the love story behind it. It is quite a complicated sci fi love story and not everyone can really understand. It is just one of those movie, either you love it or hate it (was funny to see the fans at IMDB fighting with their own opinions) even though I know there are some fans out there would definitely gives two thumbs up for it. I think I need to watch it the 2nd time when I am really in the depressing mood to really know how to appreciate it.


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TOTAL : 7.5/10