2046

2046 (Director: Wong Kar Wai)

Wai is one of those Chinese directors that critics have fallen for; his most famous work to come here is Chungking Express. I admit, I haven't seen any of his other movies, so this is my first Wai experience.

2046 may have the most deceptive ad campaign I've ever seen for a film. The previews looked like a dreamy, futuristic sci-fi romp, but it's pretty far from that. The story is set in the 60's and concerns writer Chow Mo Wan (Tony Leung Chiu Wai, who was the undercover cop in Hard-Boiled and was in last year's Hero), who finds inspiration for his lurid stories at a hotel in which he stays--and the titles come from the room numbers, although "2046" becomes the year 2046 even though it's the room in which it's based. His stories involve a showgirl (Carina Lau), a hard-to-get romance (the oh-so-fine Ziyi Zhang), and the super's daughter, Su Lizhen (Gong Li).

Apparently, watching Wai's Days of Being Wild and In the Mood for Love is almost essential to watching this movie--because it is seen as the third part of a sort of trilogy. I did get a lot out of the film on its own, but I'm curious to see how it might be enhanced by watching the others. It's a movie that I feel probably has a lot more meaning on subsequent viewings. As such, I may not be able to recommend watching this. It's not like it's incomprehensible or anything, but you'd like to have the full experience. Time to do some homework.