BriarMoone
United States
A Frustrating Experience
[Watched/Reviewed on Letterboxd 5/16/2021]
So far, outside of "Chungking Express", Wong Kar-wai's filmography has been fairly aggravating to watch. Clearly, the guy's modus operandi is the interior lives of unhappy people, but with the way people talked about his films, I was hoping for something with a little more substance than folks who clearly need to learn how to communicate with each other.
It's just been Tony Leung portraying sorry men in even sorrier relationships featuring actors I've only come to like (Leslie Cheung) and already love (Zhang Ziyi, Maggie Chung, Gong Li, and Faye Wong). It's a kind of director/actor dynamic that's proven to be less than stellar, and certainly not entertaining.
Of all his films, I was really expecting to like "In The Mood For Love", if only for my girl Maggie Cheung. The establishing period of the film is really good, I like the way the film sets the characters up as neighbors. It's kind've amusing that we're never allowed to see the faces of their beau's, only hear them speaking (clearly, someone watched "Charlie Brown").
But as the film goes on, it just feels aimless as it languishes in the growing loneliness of the characters. I struggled to remain awake just to see the two interact, but it got to a point that I didn't care anymore. I rolled over and went to sleep wishing they'd divorce their spouses so they can be "[Un]happy Together".
So far, outside of "Chungking Express", Wong Kar-wai's filmography has been fairly aggravating to watch. Clearly, the guy's modus operandi is the interior lives of unhappy people, but with the way people talked about his films, I was hoping for something with a little more substance than folks who clearly need to learn how to communicate with each other.
It's just been Tony Leung portraying sorry men in even sorrier relationships featuring actors I've only come to like (Leslie Cheung) and already love (Zhang Ziyi, Maggie Chung, Gong Li, and Faye Wong). It's a kind of director/actor dynamic that's proven to be less than stellar, and certainly not entertaining.
Of all his films, I was really expecting to like "In The Mood For Love", if only for my girl Maggie Cheung. The establishing period of the film is really good, I like the way the film sets the characters up as neighbors. It's kind've amusing that we're never allowed to see the faces of their beau's, only hear them speaking (clearly, someone watched "Charlie Brown").
But as the film goes on, it just feels aimless as it languishes in the growing loneliness of the characters. I struggled to remain awake just to see the two interact, but it got to a point that I didn't care anymore. I rolled over and went to sleep wishing they'd divorce their spouses so they can be "[Un]happy Together".
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