Why we picked it – We look for a romance for our closest date to Valentine’s Day and it doesn’t come more romantic than this. A modern classic.
Synopsis – 1962 British Hong Kong. Two Shanghai expatriates, journalist Mr Chow and secretary Mrs Su, rent rooms in adjacent apartments. Each has a spouse who is away for extended periods. Chow and Su are initially friendly only as neighbours but they grow closer when they realize that their spouses are having an affair with each other, and they subsequently try to re-enact how the affair might have begun. Working on a script for a martial arts serial together, they acknowledge their mutual feelings. When Chow takes a job in Singapore, he asks Su to go with him. She agrees but arrives too late to accompany him. They never meet again and there is a succession of missed opportunities for them over several years.
The film – A significant number of Shanghainese people emigrated to Hong Kong before the Chinese Communist takeover in 1949 forming a distinct community in Hong Kong that did not integrate with the native Cantonese. Wong Kar-Wai and the two stars of the film come from such families. The film is an evocation of that period and that community. This is evident in the costume and food although much of that detail is lost to an English speaking viewer. The lush colour and sound track contribute to the film’s mood. It was shot over a period of more than a year with Wong developing the story as he went. Originally he envisaged making a sequel following the same two characters but this was dropped and the story conflated into one film. The 2001 Cannes Festival was a self-imposed deadline to finish the film with, reputedly, Wong working an the edit up to the last few days before the premiere. In 2022, the film was placed 5th in Sight & Sound’s poll of the Greatest Films of All Time, and was the highest-ranked film made between 1975 and 2022.
Director and Writer: Kar-Wai Wong; Cinematography: Christopher Doyle; Hong Kong, 2000, 95 mins, PG