SUBSCRIBE2046 – Wong Kar Wai, 3
I’ve been anticipating this film ever since I saw the trailer a month ago while watching a movie in Makati. It opened in local theatres last Wednesday and already, I’ve seen my second screening last night.
I could not help but notice that this last work of WKW and “In the Mood for Love” have many similarities though each one is a full story in itself. From the love story that seems, in the end, unfulfilled, to the images that is flashed on the screen to the setting (1960’s). There are even parts wherein the frames are familiar, as if I was watching the latter. In some reviews, authors even mentioned that this was supposed to be a sequel of Mood and picking up where that film left. While Maggie Cheung Man Yuk just made a cameo appearance, she was central to Tony Leung Chiu Wai’s love that was lost and still hurting for that loss. While Mood was rather compact, 2046 on the other hand moves seamlessly between the present and the future.
The cinematography is good. I like the visual style. Closeups, pans, slow movements. One thing that got my attention though was that for most of the time the frame is bisected equally by a wall or other things or parts of the house and characters are conveniently located on the right or left side of the frame. Shots of the cast talking are quite close that it fills one part of the frame and most of the time, talking facing the edge. At times, it seems that they are too close to the edge. Watching it, one feels being close to the people involved. You feel their sadness, their joy, their hopes. Scenes are framed also in such a way that the viewer feels like a voyeur at times, an eavesdropper on other people’s lives.
The beautiful Zhang Ziyi never fails to awe. Subtle body movements, expressions and skillful acting shows her deep talent. Tony Leung is very much convincing of his forlorn self. Struggling with the pain of a lost love. Other notable stars are Gong Li, Takuya Kimura and Faye Wong.
