2046

2004 "Are you still in the mood for love?"
7.4| 2h8m| R| en
Details

Women enter and exit a science fiction author's life over the course of a few years after the author loses the woman he considers his one true love.

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Reviews

GamerTab That was an excellent one.
Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.
ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.
Kayden This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama
Jithin K Mohan "In the Mood for Love" showcased a hopeless love story, that which is lost even before its inception. "2046" portrays the hopeless attempts to overcome the repression of emotions by the repression of identity. Chow's idealized love for Su, which he lost, lead him into a state in which he can't stay true to his emotions. So he moves on without looking back only to look back at those who reminds him of his lost love, which ultimately leads to the realization that he needs to let go of the past. Chow's thoughts are further explored in the sci-fi world of his novel "2046". As each of the characters in his life is portrayed as a character in the novel, his real emotions towards them are exposed, as the writing progresses, even to him.Yearning for love is a basic human emotion that has always been a consistent theme in Wong films. Even when doing action/biography films like "The Grandmaster", the film ends up more or less about love. "2046" portrays the chaos of lost souls who are looking for love from all the wrong places and their suffering when they can't let go of the love they found or get hold of. Like every Wong film, "2046" is also at its best when the visual and musical motifs lead the viewers to feel what the characters are going through.Read full review at www.asianfilmvault.com/2017/07/2046-2004-by- wong-kar-wai.html
thismango I know I'm going against the flow but I hated this film. I love Asian cinema, I love gently-paced subtle films, and I love sensuality. I particularly love those things in combination. But I hated this film.It's not as clever as it thinks it is. I like clever films. But I am irritated by people trying to be clever and failing. The themes hinted at in this film are vague and fantastic. It has a stylistic appearance of being philosophical when actually there is no philosophy behind it, either thought through or felt through. The director shows nowhere near the level of intellectual strength or depth necessary to achieve what the style of the film claims to achieve. It is made in an apparently evocative style but evokes nothing in me but contempt.Even more irritating is the basic subject matter of the film, which is essentially self-indulgent pretty people whingeing about the side-effects of their over-complicated love lives. Oh, the hardship of having to sleep with yet another gorgeous, sensual young woman after a night of unrestrained drinking and gluttony. I hated this film for much the same reason I have little time for Evelyn Waugh. I have no sympathy at all and I'm not interested. I can see why 2046 would appeal to shallow, self-indulgent, complacent pseudo-intellectuals by gratifying their own precious self-obsession. I'm not one of them.
Imdbidia A marvelous movie by Hong Kong director Kar Wai Wong, with an original script, innovative film narrative, wonderful characters and a super-stylish visuals. The movie depicts with realism, nostalgia and lyricism the difficulties and constrictions of the human heart, to love and being loved.It is a nostalgic view to the bygone loves of Tony Leung's, a part-time journalist and writer of romance novels, who lives in room 2047 in a hotel in Hong Kong. 2046 is the room where some of the stories happen, and also the title of Tony's sci-fi novel. The movie is the continuation of In the Mood for Love, and some references are directly related to the story in that movie.1/ The visuals The first thing that will catch your eye are the rich deep colors of the movie, especially the gorgeous reds and greens, but also the beautiful interior cinematography, the dresses, the make-up and hairdos, the colorful retro atmosphere and vintage texture of the film, the super-classy style of the film, in which even the smallest detail is taken care of.2/ The story Two main themes are explored in the film, love and literature. The movie tells several love stories, but they are not corny, as this movie is a reflection on real love - about how the past conditions our present relationships, about how love obsession can self-sabotage your emotional life, about those people who love us but we cannot love, and about the the importance of timing in love. Secondly, the movie depicts the process of literary creation, how our life and experiences affect our writing consciously or not, and how they are intricately mixed together.Tony's character is terrific so realistic and sophisticated at the same time, without all his human flaws well visible to the viewer. The women characters are quintessentially female but clever and powerful, but also drop dead gorgeous.3/ The narrative The narrative is circular but not straightforward as the different love stories are not chronologically told. The movie starts with one important story that happened in the past, and ends with the same story, as this story is the one that affected Tony's heart the most. Moreover, this circular and hopping movement is affected by the insertion of pieces of the present, in which Tony writes his novel 2046 and reflects about his past.The narrative breaks the love stories in different pieces, placing them according to the heart, not according to the time in which they occurred. This honors Tony' emotional memory, although emotional memories are never linear, and they are also affected by our present. Moreover, the way the story is told is intensely evocative and full of nostalgia, and really engaging from a mental point of view. I think that a linear script would have ruined the movie and had a soapy effect on the movie.4/ The acting Tony Leung Chiu Wai (as Tony Leung), Ziyi Zhang (as Bai Ling), and Faye Wong (as Wang Jing-wen and the android) are terrific in their performances, completely in tune with the needs of their characters. This is specially so in the case of y Ziyi Zhang, who looks ravishing beautiful but offers an unforgettable depiction of an emotionally multifaceted woman. One wonders why such a fine talented actress is doing crappy movies in Hollywood while she can really perform.Kar Wai Wong is a rare example of true artist, and this movie is a perfect example of that. I think the movie can be tricky for lazy watchers.
GlennInWinnipeg The theme is about how a sad romantic past (a lost true love) can leave you emotionally "out of sync" unless you understand that by trying to recapture your past feelings, you are cutting off your ability to fall in love because your emotional anchor is looking backward. You see, the past is fixed, so it cannot change -- you can rely on the past, but the future because it is not establish fact yet, makes one feel powerless to affect the outcomes. So people just "give up" because there are too many variables that would need to come together to make that "perfect feeling of love" to happen again.2046 is a summation of two other movies this Director made .. "In the Mood for Love", primarily; but also "Days of Being Wild".In 2046; there are several stories, but the one involving Miss Wang and her Japanese boyfriend, is essentially a simpler version of the story the main character went through in "In the Mood for Love".Since the writers failed romance, we open with him saying how has become a womanizer and does not need a serious relationship - in fact he has changed a lot since "in the mood for love" where he was innocent and loving. Here the women love him, but he gives them "his time" in repayment. But he wants nothing beyond a surface fun friendship. Essentially, he has given up on falling in love because it is out of his control. We see the story of the special women in his life .. and all the people end up in the novel eventually - Lulu jealous boyfriend, Miss Wang, the Hotel owner (Miss Wang's dad) become the Train Captain of 2046 for instance.The stories weave around each other. The one that shows us how to escape 2046 is that of the sad story of Miss Wang and her Japanese boyfriend. Miss Wang is forbidden to see her boyfriend because he is Japanese, and the father would disown her if she saw him. She begins to talk to herself - repeating over and over the words she wished she could have said - I will come with you. Her story takes a break as she is eventually hospitalized; returning later in the story, a shell of her former self. The writer has been observing her relationship and is touched by her perseverance and sacrifice --she knows her situation is hopeless but she seems unable to give up. He eventually surprises us by helping her out by having the boyfriend's letters sent to him, and slipping them to her privately so her father is not mad. She eventually helps him write for the summer, and he falls in love with her - but she longs for her boyfriend. He then gives her a gift by writing a new novel called 2047 where he wants to show her how he sees her relationship with her Japanese boyfriend. He says that the more he wrote about the Japanese boyfriend, the more he felt he was really writing about himself.FROM 2046: "I once fell in love with someone. After a while she was gone. I couldn't stop wondering if she loved me or not. I went to 2046 hoping to find her there. But I never found her."We go to a dinner scene with Bai, which seems to serve no purpose, but shows us how she went looking for the writer the previous Christmas, and he was not there .. similar to 2046 quote above.He has figured out the emotional damage people get -- "Our cabin attendants are superbly designed... But there's only one problem: when they've served on so many long journeys, fatigue begins to set it. For example, they might want to laugh, but the smile would be slow to come. They might want to cry, but the tear wouldn't well up till the next day... "In the 2047 the Japanese character TAK concludes - "So at last, I got it. It's entirely beyond my control. The only thing left for me... was to give up." The writer then has dinner with Miss Wang - he asks her if she has heard from her boyfriend. She says she stopped because the situation was impossible because of her fathers feelings. The writer concludes - it is only impossible if you give up (take "no" for an answer), and offers to take her to call him. The expression he has as he looks in through the window is touching -- as she makes her call - he says he felt like Santa that year.Mr Wang meets up with the writer to say that he is off to Japan for his daughter's wedding. The father says he has learned that all he wants is for his daughter to be happy. So the impossible has happened. Mr Wang adds .. "my daughter loved 2047; but wishes you would change the ending as its too sad." Which begs the question - can our main character get a happy ending himself.He meets Bai again for dinner, she hands him the $10 bills he had given her, and he pays for dinner without realizing."He didn't turn back. It's AS IF HE BOARDED A VERY LONG TRAIN headed for a drowsy future through the unfathomable night"In short, he knew he was stuck in 2046 forever because he had given up. However, he was able prevent the couple from giving up and they got out of 2046.The only theme I've not touched upon is the "single gloved hand" .. simply put it shows a past undisclosed but visible to everyone.