The hippest, happenest, Hong Kong film of the decade!The hottest international director around right now (witness the full-page career survey in a recent issue of Time and the effusive praise offered him by no less a hot shot than Quentin Tarantino), Wong Kar-wai zoomed to the status of hipster and cult god base on this fabulously fun film. "An exhilaratingly stylish contemplation of courtship, coincidence, time, memory and desire. There are two consecutive stories, both set in Chungking Mansions, a lively (if lowly) neighbourhood in the heart of Hong Kong. The first concerns cop #223 (Kaneshiro Takeshi), still obsessed with his ex, who literally bumps into a mystery woman in shades, raincoat and blonde wig (Brigitte Lin), with whom, 57 hours later, he'll fall in love... The second story also concerns a cop, #663 (Tony Leung), likewise dazed by the departure of his air-hostess girlfriend; he too, unwittingly, is given another chance when, six hours after they first meet, Faye (Faye Wang), a loopy beauty who serves at the local fast-food counter falls for him and determines to invade his home, life and heart. What's so wonderful about Wong's movie is its capacity to surprise. Besides the spontaneity of Chris Doyle's camerawork... there's something tremendously refreshing about the way Wong imbues his potentially melancholy tales with a spicy, witty sense of the absurd... Throughout, he's helped no end by the cast, whose cool good looks make them the perfect inhabitants of Wong's neon city of beautiful losers, and by the inspired use of music; never has 'California Dreamin' sounded so..well, like the film, so gloriously hip. Essential viewing."--Geoff Andrew, Time Out."Exhiliratingly stylish!"--Time Out
Wong Kar-wai [is] Hong Kong's hottest action aesthete."--Village Voice
(Hong Kong, 1994, subtitles, 103 min)
Classification: TBA
7:15 & 9:30 Fri Apr 26-Thur May 2
Please note that this is a premiere.
