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Some thoughts on 2046:

Watched 2046 on Christmas Eve – a lot of important scenes/themes evolves around that time frame and that makes watching the movie on the day even more interesting.

I am not sure why some people are still confused by the movie consider the over narration by Tony Leung through out the movie. If you are still confused by the end, you can always check out the bonus DVD which Wong Kar-Wai pretty much explained everything.

All the Stars are great, except we don’t get to see Chen Chang much probably due to heavy editing.

Over the years, Wong was actually making “one” movie. In 2046, you’lll find some “old friends” like Lu-Lu from Days of Being Wild. And it’s even explicit stated Lu-Lu *was* the Lu Lu that we knew. Wong left no confusion about it. That also explain why at the end of Days of Being Wild we see Tony Leung (which is a 1991 film.)

The visual’s GREAT. Although this is not a Sci-Fi film, but the Sci-Fi scenes (needed due to the story-within-the-story) are very very beautiful and well done for Hong Kong standard.

Although not my favorite Wong Kar-Wai movie (ITMFL still is), but I am very very happy to report 2046 is a truly sincere effort by Wong. And it shows.

Don’t worry, look closer at the right and you will see the Hollywood film crew. This stealth navy jet is apparentlya prop in an up coming 2005 action movie with Jessica Biel as the female Navy Stealth jet pilot. I guess this will be similar to Clint Eastwood’s Firefox maybe? I have to say, the jet looks pretty cool since it’s on a real aircraft carrier.

Other than 2046, another movie I am totally looking forward to is this weekend’s release of Soul Plane. Maybe I will catch it when I am at Maui this weekend….

By Thurs. we will see the premier of the long awaited Hong Kong film 2046 at the Cannes Film Festival. The movie took about 4 years to make (on and off) directed by Wong Kar-Wai (one of my favorite film director).

Not a lot is known about the movie except it’s set in the future 2046. Wong also hired some of the best know Asian artists out there for the project, such as Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung, Takuya Kimura, and Zhang Ziyi.

In typical Wong’s fashion, he shot the film with NO script at all. The stars usually learn their lines when they arrive on the set.

I recently purchased an essay collection about Wong’s film, as one of the writer noted, Wong’s pretty much “telling the same story” through his various films. I don’t think the writer meant it in a bad sort of way, but makes you wonder about the whole creative process.

Wong’s family is Shanghainese and moved to Hong Kong in early 1960s’ (similar to my grandparents), so whenever Wong uses Shanghainese dialogue in certain domestic scenes I feel very connected to his films which I don’t find in most Hong Kong movies.

Why 2046? 1997 + 50 = 2046/7. 1997 was the year Hong Kong handed back to the Chinese after 100 years of British colonial rule. The 50 years came from the famous Dung Shau-Ping line, “50 years of stability” meaning China won’t change the Hong Kong’s way of life for 50 years afterward. I don’t think Wong’s movie will be about politics, but the year 2046 is certainly the year to look forward to. The movie too.