2046

I re-watched Wong Kar Wai's 2046 last night. I remember waiting for this film. Rumours swirled. It would be set in 1960s Hong Kong, as a companion piece to In the Mood for Love. It would be set in the year 2046 and feature robots. It would star Tony Leung and and feature Maggie Cheung, Gong Li, and Carina Lau, and Faye Wong and Zhang Zi Yi. Chang Chen (Taiwan) and Kimura Takuya (Japan) had roles. I wondered how these leading actors would fit into one film, and how their different languages of Cantonese, Mandarin, and Japanese could fit together.

Somehow, it does contain all those elements and more, as it explores key WKW themes of memory, loss, and reflections on failed romance. For me, the look of 2046 is just stunningly beautiful... combining saturated colours, muted lighting, elegant costumes and sexual desire within tight, enclosed interiors. Intriguingly, 2046 references earlier films in which some characters appear, revealing more about their background and motivations. Also intriguing is the way that scenes between actors who speak different languages are integrated - without much apparent difficulty. That use of language, and the fact that it is set in Hong Kong and Singapore, with characters from Japan and Cambodia (including the mysterious 'black widow' gambler Su Lizhen from Phnom Penh) gives it a pan-Asian quality. 2046 is a complex and often puzzling fim, but one that rewards a repeat viewing.