2046
Directed, Produced & Written by: Wong Kar Wai.
Director of Photography: Christopher Doyle, Lai Yiu Fai, Kwan Pun Leung.
Edited by: William Chang Suk-Ping.
Music by: Peer Rabin & Shigeru Umebayashi.
Released by: Sony Pictures Classics.
Language: Cantonese, Mandarin & Japanese with English subtitles.
Country of Origin: Hong Kong. 129 min. Rated: R.
With: Tony Leung, Ziyi Zhang, Gong Li, Faye Wong, Maggie Cheung & Chang Chen.

Set five years after In the Mood for Love, 2046 is director Wong Kar Wai's vision of a writer's hollow life after a tragic love affair. Taking place again in '60s Hong Kong, Chow (Tony Leung), once a faithful husband, has deteriorated into a socialite playboy, a role that Leung delivers with mischievous appeal. His past resurfaces when a hotel room numbered 2046 causes him to recall his former Mood lover (Maggie Cheung, in a cameo). It is the same number where they carried out their extramartial affair.

Lonely, Chow succumbs to volatile affairs with many beautiful women, but it is clear he has lost all capacity to love - just when a woman fall for him, he, with an almost sadistic smile, dismisses her. Ziyi Zhang proves herself as an actress beyond her unearthly physical loveliness as Bai Ling, a prideful woman harshly rejected by Chow. The only woman he lets into his heart is Wang Jing Wen (Faye Wong). Inspired by their relationship, Chow envisions a sci-fi tale where people can travel to 2046, a land of no return rumored to bring back long lost memories. This futuristic world of claustrophobic metropolises marks the first but masterful inclusion of CGI for the team of Wong and cinematographer Christopher Doyle, adding moments of grandeur and imagination compared to the repressive world of Mood. However in 2046, Chow is no longer an opaque, reticent character, and as he narrates these tales, all of his desires and self-discoveries are made apparent, taking away from the subtlety he had in Mood.

With the aid of the finest young actors in Asia, Wong succeeds in creating an experience more unforgettable than one's fondest romantic memory. Just as in Mood, the music of 2046 also punctuates the slow, cyclical pacing of the film. No matter how much time progresses, the repeated use of songs by Nat King Cole and the incomparable score of Shigeru Umebayashi and Peer Raben always bring the rueful Chow back to square one - alone. But it is no surprise if some find the film overbearing, for underneath 2046's atmospheric veneer of music, sensuality and visual glamour there is a rather simple melodrama at work. But whether you choose to partake in the director's passionate affair with love itself, one thing is sure: No one recreates the lush intoxication of love quite like this director. Marie Iida
August 5, 2005