2046
Mei Ah Entertainment
The latest from Wong Kar Wai is slated for a U.S. Sony Classics theatrical release in August, but for those who’ve wearied of waiting (it took Wong four years to finish the film, and the American release has been especially slow in coming), Netflix, as well as local independent stores, is offering a no-frills DVD of the film. Set in a dizzyingly stylish Hong Kong circa the late Sixties, the film is essentially a series of vignettes detailing the failed love affairs of the serial heartbreaker Chow (Tony Leung Chiu Wai, reprising his role from 2000’s In the Mood for Love). In between seducing the likes of Ziyi Zhang and Gong Li, Chow also works on an erotic/sci-fi graphic novel titled 2046, in which broken hearts travel by train, serviced by sexy androids, to the year 2046, where lost memories are kept. Still with me? A bizarre, bewitching film, 2046 is long on atmospherics – chief cinematographer Christopher Doyle favors mirrors, silhouettes, and smoke (rivaling Now, Voyager for cigarette-smoke seductiveness) – but short on narrative. It also frustratingly fails to capitalize on its cyberpunk potential (the sexy androids, alas, are but a tease). An imperfect picture, to be sure, but a typically, resolutely, gorgeous effort from Wong nonetheless.This article appears in May 27 • 2005.
