2046 by Wong Kar Wai: Sci-Fi Meets Sensuous

Fusion of Fantasy & Romance in Wong Kar Wai's Arthouse Movie

May 6, 2008

Following 'In the Mood for Love' is '2046', directed by Wong Kar Wai, starring Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, with cinematographer Christopher Doyle

2046 is a mood piece from renowned China director Wong Kar Wai, with a difference. This time Wong Kar Wai fuses memory with the future. 2046 follows the movie In the Mood for Love with these familiar words: “what people did in the old days when they had secrets they didn’t want to share? They’d climb a mountain, find a tree, carve a hole in it, whisper the secret...and cover it up with mud.”

Story of ‘2046’

Departing from the tension and nostalgic sets of In the Mood for Love, the film begins with a fantasy train called 2046, which takes you to a place where you can relive lost memories. However, no one ever comes back. And so the tale begins. The audience rendezvous with Chow (played by Tony Leung Chiu-Wai) again, protagonist of In the Mood for Love. It soon becomes clear Chow is the true protagonist of this film. Chow leaves Singapore for Hong Kong, then visits Singapore again. On the way, he meets and falls in love with many women, including Lulu (Carina Lau), Bai Ling (Zhang Ziyi), Jing Wen (Faye Wong) and a second Su Li Zhen (Gong Li). If Memoirs of A Geisha featured a great many Oriental beauties, 2046 takes the time to bring out their sensuousness one by one, like blooming Peonies. Christopher Doyle’s lush cinematography is at once sensuous and heavy, like blood stain drops on a silkscreen.

Camera Technique

The shot reverse shot is frequently used in 2046. This, and the lack of two-shots, creates the alienated feel that makes the film a tragedy. For instance, in a conversation, the audience only sees each individual over the other’s shoulder, usually standing in a far corner, with the other party obliterated by a wall. In this way, director Wong Kar Wai subjects Chow (and the audience) to the role of voyeur of Room 2046.

Lulu & Su Li Zhen

2046 is layered carefully, story within story, with future sprouting from and sinking back into the past. Veteran actresses Carina Lau and Gong Li give 2046 velvet-gloved depth with their closed faces, an emotion escaping from time to time, giving hint of vulnerability. Carina Lau plays Lulu, Chow’s acquaintance from Singapore, who has a tragic past and a tragic ending, but she is fiery and glorious when she appears, donning purple hair, like an opera singer about to ascend the stage. Gong Li plays Su Li Zhen, Black Spider, a worldly woman whose soulful look sends Chow into deep reverie and confusion. The original Su Li Zhen is played by Maggie Cheung In the Mood for Love and Days of Being Wild, and she makes a brief cameo in this movie. Fans of Wong Kar Wai's films will also remember Carina Lau back from Days of Being Wild, as competitive love interest to Su Li-Zhen, which she is again, here.

Bai Ling & Jing Wen

Chow returns to Hong Kong as a struggling journalist. Hong Kong’s riotous history increases the film’s feverish mood, and shows up Chow’s love affairs as a sign of the times. Zhang Ziyi plays Bai Ling, a capricious and attractive young lady who has a torrid affair with Chow, and falls for him. But Chow does not requite. Ziyi’s performance here sparkles like the diamonds she wears – like liquid fire: sometimes fiery, sometimes slippery and always bristling with emotion. However, Chow develops a crush for the hotelkeeper’s daughter Jing Wen, already in love with a Japanese man. Faye Wong puts in another airily sensuous performance for Wong Kar Wai (she also stars in Kar Wai’s Chungking Express); the camera lingers on her lovingly, she is cool to the camera though her passions are deep.

Sensuous & Soulful Soundtrack

The success of this moodpiece comes from the interpretation of film shots set to great music. 2046 has a gorgeously beautiful soundtrack, the sort of lounge lizard music you get from the 1960’s, thick and rich like chocolate. Listen out for alluring tracks like ‘Siboney’, ‘Adagio’ and ‘Perfidia’ by different artistes. Tony Leung maintains his low-key but powerful performance as he did in In the Mood for Love, but this time with more sway and ease as he enters his 30s.

Why 2046?

When Hong Kong was handed over to China in 1997, it was declared that Hong Kong would remain unchanged for fifty years. This could explain 2046 as the year of nostalgia, of chasing the past to relive it. However, fans of Wong Kar Wai will tell you that politics is but a backdrop in his films, it is the sensuousness of living that takes centrestage in 2046.

The copyright of the article 2046 by Wong Kar Wai: Sci-Fi Meets Sensuous in Asian Films is owned by Lynette S.K. Webster. Permission to republish 2046 by Wong Kar Wai: Sci-Fi Meets Sensuous in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.