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2046 (2005, Wong)

How appropriate that I was only able to write a review for 2046, Wong Kar-Wai's latest elegy to the past that lingers and haunts, over a month and a half since I first saw it, forced to wait until it had become a lingering, haunting presence in my mind before I was able to translate my thoughts on the film into words.

My first reaction to the film was that of disappointment, feeling that Wongs narrative was so tangled (albeit beautifully rendered) that it unintentionally strangled itself somewhere along the line. But it didnt even take so long as the drive back home before the films magic was working on me, and two days later I was in the same darkened theatre, watching it again. A week after that, I saw it once more.

As Ive read and reread reviews and analyses in the weeks since then, Ive come across opinions and interpretations as countless as the reviews Ive read. Here now, finally, is my contribution to the numerous ideas that have been set forth regarding this film over the last year, and which Im sure will continue for a long time into the future as people return and reevaluate the film.

Many critics have labeled the central character Chow Wo-Man, Tony Leung Chiu Was male half of the pas de deux that comprises IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE, a surrogate character of Wong himself. There are indeed obvious parallels between the two, particularly since both are purveyors of pulp material that can be viewed as art. But it is their respective artistic creations, not the act of the creating itself, that seem so strikingly similar to me.

In the film, Chow describes how as he wrote his story 2046 elements of his life began to slip in and shape the narrative. I see the film 2046 in the same light. Wong set out to make a science fiction film, to essentially take his career in a new direction. But like the story within the film, the sci-fi (i.e. the future) that was being created couldnt sustain itself, and the films foundation, the past, eventually crumbled, and the entire film collapsed upon itself. Wongs whole career has been built upon his recreation of 1960s Hong Kong, and in the twelve years that elapsed between 1988s AS TEARS GO BY and 2000s IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE, Wong was able to raise this time period to mythic proportions. IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE, with its almost fetishistic reinterpretation of the past, seemed a natural, even inevitable culmination of this. But despite his attempt to do so, it seems that it is at the point where Wong himself (much like the character of Mr. Chow) is unable to escape the overwhelming presence of the past, and has now become irrevocably bound to it.

Take for example, how the casting of 2046 means that with the exception of FALLEN ANGELS (which is suspended almost exactly at the halfway point of his career), every film Wong has made is represented in 2046 by one of its lead actors. There is Carina Lau (DAYS OF BEING WILD, ASHES OF TIME), Faye Wong (CHUNGKING EXPRESS) and Gong Li (THE HAND (from the omnibus film EROS)), as well as Leungs connection to HAPPY TOGETHER and IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE. And of course there is Maggie Cheung Man-Yuks contribution to AS TEARS GO BY, but who is also a constant presence over Wongs career much the same way she is a driving force behind 2046.

It is also important to note that Zhang Ziyi, the sole major female actress in 2046 who had not worked with Wong previously, is the only female character that offers Chow some kind of future. Tellingly, she is also the only one Leung overtly rejects.

This all is to say that through 2046, Wong is asserting (whether consciously or not), that the past is the future, a cyclical entity that endlessly repeats itself. This is a concept that has fascinated me since I first detected it in the novels of Virginia Woolf and have since gone on to examine in earnestthe idea that the future is only a variation of the past, or at the very least, time can be measured in constant patterns that endlessly repeat themselves (take the name Su Li Zhen, for one really obvious example). This may be the cause of one of the (many) reasons why I feel so compelled to continually return to 2046the impression that 2046 is constantly, continuously evolving. The film almost gives the feeling that there is an infinite number of versions of this film somewhere out there, but at the same time, whatever the variation might be, everything will ultimately end in the exact same way.

None of this conveys my utmost admiration in the aesthetic qualities of 2046, which are among the most dazzling I have ever encountered. The sensual, almost sexual intensity Wong gives to even the most mundane of objects (costume jewelry, letters, china plates, wallpaper) creates an almost surreal dreamscape for his characters to interact ina world so oversaturated with texture and color and vibrancy that seems to be a manifestation of the past, with all its history and meaning, cast in the form of the present.

The actors, somehow, seem to be handled in the same way. In many ways Wongs treatment of his actors mirrors Antonionisthey are simply objects to be placed and manipulated the same way the mise en scene is. But he clusters himself with such an astounding group of actors (much the same way Bergman did before him) that they somehow seem to flourish despite the inherent objectification tendencies of his style. This may very well be Zhang Ziyis best performance to date, and both Faye Wong and Gong Li create vivid, touching characterizations of enigmatic women. Even Carina Lau, working with only several minutes of screen time, manages to embed herself in the memory. And Leung Chiu Was subtle acting style has become so confident and assured in its quiet way that it now seems to function as the yin balancing Wongs overpowering yang. It is testament to these actorss talent and skill that they manage to avoid being completely eclipsed by the film that surrounds them.