2046

2046
TARTAN
RELEASED 14 January 2005
If you’ve ever seen ‘In the Mood for Love’, you’ll remember it as a brilliantly stylish romantic drama in the vein of ‘Brief Encounter’. Director Wong Kar-wai spent the past four years filming this follow-up, a sequel of sorts.
Living in late 60’s Hong Kong as a playboy journalist and pulp-fiction writer (set a few years after ‘ITMFL’), Chow Mo Wan (Tony Leung) has no direction in his life. Three relationships (‘Hero’s Ziyi Zhang, Faye Wong, Gong Li) take him on something of a voyage of self-discovery. While seeing Faye Wong, he writes a novel set in the future about a man who returns by train from a place called ‘2046’ where you can recapture whatever memories you like.
If you loved ‘In the Mood for Love’ then I’m pretty sure you’re going to like this. ‘ITMFL’ was a classic ill-fated love story, but this is a darker tale more about ideas than love, about how revisiting the past can never work.
It looks fantastic, has a beautiful vision of the future (though does anyone really think the world will be covered in train networks?) and the performances are top-notch. Unfortunately, Maggie Cheung, reprising her role as Su Li-zhen, only appears for about 20 seconds. But the soundtrack contains a stunning theme tune, lush strings and Nat King Cole’s ‘Chestnuts Roasting’. Seriously recommended for art film lovers.
Oh, and just because some of the film takes place in the future, there are no laser guns, in case you were wondering!
FIVE OUT OF FIVE