2046 (?) (2004)

Also known as 2046

Director: Kar Wai Wong
Genre: Drama, Fantasy
Language: Chinese
Cast:

• et al.
• Faye Wong
• Maggie Cheung
• Takuya Kimura
• Tony Leung
• Ziyi Zhang

Rating: 7/10
Review:
2046 is a dark, enigmatic drama that leaves the viewer both exquisitely intrigued and confused. The trailer leads many people to think that the movie is set in the future, but most of the plot is set in 1960s Hong Kong--an era of dressed up men, beautiful women in Chinese cocktail dresses, and lots of cigarette smoke. Even if the deep meaning and plot of 2046 is difficult to fully understand, the stunning visuals of the film make it worth seeing.

Synopsis: the story is a continuation (but not a sequel) to Wong Kar Wai's previous film 'In the Mood for Love'. It centers on Newspaper journalist and writer Chow Mo Wan (Tony Leung), who has recently moved back to Hong Kong from Singapore. Upon inquiring about rooms to let with a landlord, he notices that room number 2046 is vacant and asks to move in there. The landlord does not permit him to move in, because it needs to be 'cleaned up' (a brutal murder recently occured there), and Chow instead moves into room 2047.

While living in his flat Chow meets a number of interesting neighbors, most of them women. There is Wang Jing Wen (Faye Wong), the landlord's daughter, who has fallen in love with a Japanese man living in Hong Kong, but is not permitted to marry him by her Japan-o-phobic father. There is Bai Ling (Ziyi Zhang), a ridulously beautiful courtesan/nightclub mistress, who Chow courts for sex eventually suceeds.

Many of Chow's neighbors become characters in his futuristic novel, called 2046--Wang Jing Wen's Japanese boyfriend (Takura Kimura) becomes a train passenger to '2046', who falls in love with his android attendant (who is a futuristic version of Wang Jing Wen). The novel itself is an attempt by Chow to reconcile his previous romantic failures with Su Li Zhen in "In the Mood for Love". In this movie, Chow fell in love with his neighbor's wife, Su Li Zhen, but became heartbroken when he was unable to win her over.

In the end, though Chow is unable to deal with his past mistakes in love, and his novel 2046 takes an equally melancholy ending. Even though Bai Li falls in love with him, he is unable to return her love because he is always doomed to compare her with his ideal love, Su Li Zhen.

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2046 is a beautifully made movie, with its costumes and its visuals, despite the fact that there is almost no 'scenery'--everything is set in a dim apartment, or a dusk restaurant, or a Hong Kong street at night. Chow and his entourage of beautiful female counterparts--notably Ziyi Zhang--are great actors who add a lot of weight to scenes with long, drawn-out pauses and film noir-style seriousness. My only complain about the movie was that it was a bit difficult to follow, perhaps because I'm a 'guai-lo', but probably because the director meant for each line, each scene to carry a lot of weight and meaning. In short, it's a movie that should be seen at least a few times to be fully understood.

By ericjensen. Posted on March 24th, 2006.