2046 (Wong, 2004) - Just in case you’re wondering: I HAVE been watching movies. Just a lot fewer than before - but I had an 80s double feature with BF last Thursday (BILL & TED’S BOGUS JOURNEY & ROAD HOUSE), and some others that I’ll post about soon. I’ve been writing, too, just mostly on my old weblog - Justified recaps and a long rambly thing about shipping.
Anyway: 2046. Like Wong Kar-Wai’s other movies, it’s more a poem than prose, with many interlocking strands of narrative which mostly serve as excuses for gorgeous evocative images set to dreamy music. His style actually has a lot in common with the current lo-fi trend in photography, with lots of blurriness and exaggerated color filters (especially in the more sci-fi-y parts), giving everything a gauzy feeling - not inappropriate, of course, for a movie that’s mostly about memory. It’s also male-gazy as hell, with everything filtered through Tony Leung, who’s honestly kind of an ass in the film. A gorgeous ass, sure, but an ass nonetheless. As a consequence, his many leading ladies stay somewhat abstract, beautiful sphinxes, eyes forever brimming with undefined tears.
Still. I can’t deny that his movies can conjure a melancholy mood like no other.
