2046: Amazon.ca: Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Ziyi Zhang, Faye Wong, Li Gong, Takuya Kimura, Carina Lau, Chen Chang, Jie Dong, Maggie Cheung, Thongchai McIntyre, Wang Sum, Ping Lam Siu, Kar Wai Wong, Amedeo Pagani, Eric Heumann, Gilles Ciment, Marc Sillam, St�phane Kooshmanian: DVD

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In Wong Kar Wai's quasi-sequel to In the Mood for Love, 2046 is a hotel room, a futuristic story, and a state of mind. Tony Leung returns as Chow, but perhaps not the same Chow who appeared in the first film. Starting three years later in 1966, we see Chow on various Christmases as he lives, loves, and writes in a hotel and nearby restaurants. Although he is less sensitive and more of a ladies man now, Chow's love life always seems to exceed his grasp. Whether the character is the same (the director calls this an "echo" of the first movie) might be trivial. Hong Kong filmmaker Wai is such a visualist (Time magazine tabbed him as the "world's most romantic filmmaker"), the images wash over with swirling smoke, neon lights, and the faces of his outstanding cast, all lovingly photographed and smoothly scored. There's a lot more going on than the visuals, and Wai's fans will certainly find more and more details on repeated viewings. We travel into Chow's futuristic story, where the acquaintances become fictional characters traveling to a place where "everyone goes" to recapture lost memories. Often Chow talks about never seeing a lover ever again, but eventually bumps into her. The final result is a film some will cherish; others will long for the more traditional storyline of the first film. Wai certainly finds a new direction for actress Ziyi Zhang (House of Flying Daggers) as a prostitute who becomes one of Chow's many lovers. And Leung continues to be one of the world's great film actors, with a face and acting style the camera just loves. --Doug Thomas

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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars So at last, I got it. It's entirely beyond my control., Feb 13 2009

By

Glenn Laycock (Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: 2046 (DVD)

2046 is truly a masterpiece. A lot of people do not understand it, but I did some research before watching it, so I knew to pay attention.

First, without subtitles everyone speaks their own language (so one person might speak mandarin to someone speaking Japanese); so a lot of reviewers got confused. The DVD HAS SUBTITLES and is therefore easy to follow.

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 the Mood for Love's main link is the hotel room number 2046, which is the room where the lovers met. The love affair does not have a happy ending because the conditions needed to make it work seem outside their control, so they break up. So you see the pattern being questioned in 2046 -- we ponder that "timing is important" but do we surrender any impact on future timing by giving up on finding true love.

In 2046; there are several stories, but the one involving Miss Wang (Faye Wong) and her Japanese boyfriend, is essentially a simpler version of the story the main character went through in "In the Mood for Love".

NUMBERS .. okay you have to keep track of numbers as there are some fun hints given using numbers. For instance, areas 1224 and 1225 are symbolic of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

THE ROOMS - 2046 is where his romance happened years ago. He tries to move into 2046, but has to take 2047 down the hall (hall symbolizes time). He can watch 2046 from 2047 and this is where Miss Wang and Bai Ling live.

The story takes place in Hong Kong, in the mid to late 1960s. 2046 is a future novel the main character is writing; keep in mind this the the future as seen in the 1960s (so not how we see the future now). That said it is really a future setting where the 2046 TRAIN meanders through the city endlessly. The neat thing is that people go to 2046 to rediscover their forgotten past (they attempt to come to terms with it). Therefore, in 2046 nothing ever changes; but no one is certain it is real because no one ever returns from there - they get stuck on the train. So 2046 is a room, a time, a train, and a place. To escape 2046 you essentially have keep working to win your love no matter how impossible it seems. To achieve success you have to endure terrible injury and be patient for the timing to work out.

Back to the writer. Since his failed romance, we open with him saying how he 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.

**SPOILERS BELOW**

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 (wonderful actor BTW). Miss Wang is forbidden to see her boyfriend because he is Japanese, and the father would disown her if she saw him (Japan was not good to China during the war). 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 (played so sweetly by the girl)--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. There is a change though - notice the two quotes below from his 2046 and 2047 novel.

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."

FROM 2047: "I once fell in love with someone. I couldn't stop wondering if she loved me back. I found an android which looked just like her. I hoped she would give me the answer."

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.

Also, from 2047 - 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 the newspaper office so that she can call her boyfriend. 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 writer asks why he is so happy when he detests the Japanese - and 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 tries and tries to change the end of his story but is locked. He meets Bai again for dinner, and she give him money -- $10 bills he had given her when they were very much a couple - and watches as he pays for dinner with the money. She knows she means little to him. She asks him to stay but he refuses ...

"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. He was able stop the couple from giving up and they got out.

The only theme I've not touched upon is the "single gloved hand" .. simply put it shows a past undisclosed but visible to everyone. Much like a scar.

One factor that might help clarify the story flow; is that there are really two stories put together here. The story of Bai (Zhang Ziyi) would almost stand alone, but it gives background to the conclusion we need. Something to keep in mind as it makes the flow make way more sense.

This movie hits so close to true on so many levels. The photography is really interesting, and the music stunning. I highly recommend it.

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5.0 out of 5 stars This is a great movie, Jan 27 2010

By

M. Edwards (Toronto&Tokyo) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: 2046 (DVD)

This movie is so sad and brilliantly shot. It's beautiful. The actors are flawless. Kimura Takuya especially.

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Amazon.com: 4.0 out of 5 stars (84 customer reviews)

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Can Lives Be Redeemed, or Only Lived Out?, April 7 2006

By Kang Nan - Published on Amazon.com

This review is from: 2046 (DVD)

Continuing his unparalleled examination of human relationships, Wong Kar Wai returns to the character of Chow from In the Mood for Love, who had one chance for love, lost it, and has never gotten it back. (While it is not necessary to have seen the former film to understand 2046, In the Mood for Love is such a wonderful film, that I recommend it to anyone who likes 2046). Tony Leung gives a wonderful performance, clearly showing that he knows he should treat his women better than he does, but after giving his heart once in vain, he is not prepared to ever do so again.

2046 appears at first to be a year in the future, but is ultimately revealed to be the number of a hotel room where Chow had his one chance at happiness. He finds a modicum of that innocence once again, this time in 2047, with a different woman (the daughter of the innkeeper, played by Wang Faye), the only one he treats with anything like the affection he had for the woman who had shared (platonically) 2046 with him earlier. He writes a story for her, called 2047. She says she likes it, but wishes it had a happier ending, something fans of Wong Kar Wai sometimes long for, but realize would not be true to that which goes on during his stories.

Aside from Tony Leung's masterful performance, 2046 is the perfect platform for the greatest Chinese actresses of today, demonstrating once again that no one can break your heart like Maggie Cheung, no one can make you happy like Wang Faye, no one can be a [...]like Zhang Zi Yi (albeit one that can still have her heart broken because she uses a hard exterior in a vain attempt to protect a brittle interior) and no one could ever be as beautiful as Gong Li.

Like most of Wong Kar Wai's movies, the ending can be called bittersweet at best. He has only had one semi-happy ending, in Chungking Express, which also featured Tony Leung and Wang Faye (the only other time she has appeared in one of his movies). This time, the only character who ends up happy is Wang Faye's, largely due to Tony Leung's intervention. I don't know if that is a coincidence, or perhaps a comment on the fact that it isn't really possible to have anything but a happy ending when her luminous cheeks and eyes bless the screen. For all of the other characters, however, we see much of the same unfulfilled longings and reconciliation to the alienation so many feel toward their families, friends and lovers.

Each of Wong Kar Wai's films has built up to this ultimate piece on what it means to be human and to know other humans. You should really watch all of them, but even if you just watch this one, you will be the richer for it.

30 of 32 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Cinematic Masterpiece, Dec 30 2005

By Paul McGrath - Published on Amazon.com

This review is from: 2046 (DVD)

As a young college student many years ago, I took a film class as a kind of lark and to fulfill some requirement or other. It was pretty much a waste of time. There was one camera to go around among twenty students, so we each got about a week with the thing and hardly anybody got anything done. The one good thing was that we got to see some avant-garde films. They were real eye-openers, in that film, to me, had pretty much always been a depiction of a linear story line with a beginning, middle, climax and end. The avant-garde films we watched rarely had any kind of a story line at all, but despite this the better ones were still able to elicit a satisfying emotional or intellectual response.

The first thing you have to remember when you watch 2046 is that there is not a conventional story line here. In fact, the haphazard nature of the film's scenes--past, present, future, imagined and "real"--don't even make sense in their own illogical framework. You have to know this going in because if you strain to make sense of the plot--as we have all been conditioned to do--you will miss the point. Indeed, I had to watch this a couple of times.

The film consists of a series of scenes primarily focusing on a Chinese writer named Chow. He is in Singapore, and leaves a beautiful woman behind who may or may not have loved him. He is in Hong Kong, and falls for another beautiful woman who is murdered in her hotel room. He tells the hotel-keeper that he wishes to move into this room--2046--because he is evidently trying to return to this place in his mind and his heart. Of course, he can't, literally or figuratively, so he is given the room next door. He begins an affair with a prostitute who moves into 2046 and who loves him with every fiber of her being. He uses her as a prostitute only. He falls in love with the hotel-keeper's daughter who herself is in love with a distant Japanese man her father despises. He writes a science-fiction piece--visualized in the film and entitled 2046--which is a story of the future and a train on which female androids serve one but with whom one must never fall in love, and on which he imagines himself to be Japanese.

Ehh, no, this is not a coherent storyline. The future is mixed with the past which is mixed with the present which is mixed with his story which is mixed up with his imagination. In the end, it occurs that it is entirely possible that all of these women are the same person; that they are simply some ideal of love he has concocted in his mind. Maybe not.

Visually, the film is a stunner. Every scene, every backdrop, every set-piece is carefully and meticulously orchestrated. Cigarette smoke drifting above a cluttered desk; a beautifully-clothed female form asleep on a bed; cards laid out on a green table in a dark restaurant: you could paint these scenes and hang them in an art museum. The framing device is also very artful. It is constrained and prevents us from seeing what we want to see. It is hard to comprehend. More importantly, the attention that is being paid to these details and the beauty with which they are rendered concentrates the viewer's attention: something incredibly important is going on. This feeling is reinforced by the musical score--opera and classical mostly--which drifts in and out plaintively.

The acting, from the smaller to the larger roles, is spectacular. So much is going on beyond that which is said, and beyond that which is implied. All of the actors and actresses are superb, but special mention must be paid to Ziyi Zheng, who plays the prostitute, and who burns a hole in the screen every time she appears on it. She is an un-erupted volcano of barely restrained emotion: thin, beautiful, lonely, sensual, and terribly, terribly sad.

In the end, and without perhaps realizing it, we understand that the film works as a statement on the human condition, and the clumsy, random way we try to seek happiness in it. We recognize true love after our chance for it is over, or after our previous actions have rendered it impossible. Or maybe because we failed to recognize it altogether. Or maybe because we are not Japanese, or younger, or older. Complete, unfettered happiness only exists in 2046, a room we cannot enter; a year that is in an unfathomably distant future.

That this film is an original and successful experiment with the medium, that it is so beautifully photographed and scored, that it is so perfectly acted, and that its grand themes are completely realized, make it one of the best films of the year, if not the decade.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A visionary and intoxicating experience, Feb 19 2006

By Alec Price - Published on Amazon.com

This review is from: 2046 (DVD)

Wong Kar-wai is one of the finest filmmakers in the world; an artist of singular vision and remarkable range. 2046 is probably his biggest project to date, but his eye remains firmly focussed on the spectrum of human emotion and behaviour. It would be redundant to attempt to encapsulate some form of plot outline (on the surface of things, Tony Leung reprises his character from the majestic IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE, contemplating his many varied encounters with women in the past, present and even future, all the while longing for Maggie Cheung - his on-screen partner in the previous film - who remains the love of his life).

Suffice to say, narrative is not the point - Wong's films are about pure experience; creating mood and atmosphere to lose yourself in. If you can tune in to his wavelength, the effect is rapturous.

The transfer on the new DVD is very fine, and is complemented by an impressive array of feautures which do a good job of conveying Wong's complex approach to his craft.

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