2046 (2004)
Directed by Wong Kar-Wai
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.
2 connections found
View:
2 connections, in both directions
What critics compared 2046 to
From Chungking Express to Happy Together to In the Mood for Love, his films are somewhere between art and advertising - stunningly beautiful, evocative, but narratively obscure.
" In the Mood for Love " (2001) brought that erotic sadness to a kind of perfection in its story of a man and a woman who live in hotel rooms next to each other, and want to become lovers but never do, because his wife and her husband are lovers, and "for us to do the same thing would mean we are no better than they are."
It�s a loose sequel to Wong�s ravishing In the Mood for Love, although "companion piece" may be a more accurate term.
Its tender yet abrasive story catches up with Chow (Tony Leung), one of the broken-hearted lovers from Wong's unforgettable "In the Mood for Love," years after the affair that redefined his life has ended.
Although some of the characters and settings are the same, 2046 is less a sequel to than a variation on In the Mood for Love.
But most of all, one Su-Lizhen (Maggie Cheung) with whom Chow shared a passionate if not quite consummated affair around a hotel room (see also: "In the Mood for Love").
(Although I’m still all a-wonder as to why Zhang and Gong Li are cast to play Japanese geishas in the upcoming Rob Marshall adaptation of “Memoirs of a Geisha.”
Add to that fact the future prospect of Rob Marshall's Memoirs of a Geisha adaptation, which features not one but three prominent Chinese actresses in Japanese roles (two of whom appear here), and seemingly, the unfortunate generalization of all Asians into one group continues unabated; but 2046 benefits in that its cultural idiosyncrasies can be accepted as part of a larger story bound not by language or culture, but by storytelling convention manipulated such as it is via the alien genre trappings (or in this case, opportunities) of science fiction.
Ziyi is a great beauty and also an actress of some talent (she gave a sensational star turn in 2046 earlier this year) but her awkwardness in the title role and stiff line readings are a problem.
After delivering a career high performance in "2046," Ziyi Zhang ("House of Flying Daggers") does pallid work in her first English language speaking role.
Unfortunately for her, she also attracts the hostility of the geisha house's queen bee (Zhang's "2046" co-star, China's Gong Li), who reacts to her young rival with the feral ferocity of Bette Davis at her witchy prime.