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2046 Review from Eye Weekly

 
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summertime



Joined: 16 Dec 2004
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 12, 2005 3:35 am    Post subject: 2046 Review from Eye Weekly

Dream digits
2046

Starring Tony Leung, Zhang Ziyi. Written and directed by Wong Kar-wai. (14A) 129 min. Opens Aug 12.

Beguiling and bewildering in equal measure, Wong Kar-wai's latest has a distinctly intoxicating effect. Even those viewers well schooled in the ways of the Hong Kong auteur may feel overwhelmed by 2046's moody languor and ravishing imagery. (Gong Li's lipstick smear will haunt me for the rest of my days.) Filled with elisions, allusions and repetitions, the film -- which notoriously made a very late debut at Cannes in 2004 before being re-edited -- can feel like a series of ornate fragments that have come loose from a larger framework. Indeed, it may be best regarded as Wong's equivalent of a remix album for the way it weaves characters, themes and moments from his past work -- most prominently Days of Being Wild and In the Mood for Love -- into ambiguous new arrangements. What saves it from being an exercise meant only for the director's devotees is the madly beating heart that lies beneath its pristine veneer.

If that heart belongs to any character in particular, it's not 2046's permanently forlorn hero Chow Mo Wan (Tony Leung), a writer in 1960s Hong Kong. The sorrows that Chow suffered in In the Mood for Love have made him a cad. Though he reveals his romantic longings in stories about futuristic love affairs (briefly glimpsed in the film's lavish science-fiction scenes and one stunning movies-within-movie montage), his manner now has an edge of cruelty. Wong's film presents Chow's fraught relationships with several women, many of whom live in a hotel room with the number of 2046. Li is radiant as a lady gambler, but the lover who makes the most indelible impression is Miss Bai Ling (Zhang Ziyi), an impetuous call girl who falls hard for Chow only to realize that his nostalgic reveries leave him indifferent to his love affairs in the present.

As Nat King Cole sings Christmas carols on the soundtrack, hips sway and hearts break in exquisite slow motion. Of course, Wong has brought us here before but 2046 makes the ache seem as sweet as ever. JASON ANDERSON

http://www.eye.net/eye/issue/issue_08.11.05/film/onscreen.html#1
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