2046 (Hong Kong 2004)
Entrapment of a suave gambler turned pulp-novelist by his muses – femmes fatales all…
Director & Writer Kar Wai Wong
DPs Christopher Doyle & Pung-Leung Kwan
Original Music Shigeru Umebayashi
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2046: Night Train to Future Noir
I really loved 2046, as I did nearly all the Wong Kar-Wai movies I’ve seen. The melancholy, the rapturous beauty of the images, the nostalgia, the detachment, the existential crises, the parallel existence – they all worked to make 2046 a fascinating viewing experience.
I too love Wong Kar-wai and this film especially.
Tony, have you ever read any Haruki Murakami? His modern Japanese/American sensibilities are fantastic in his surrealist dreamlike cyber-punk pulp. He’s quite a talent, and one of my favorite writers writing right now. The ‘pulpiest’ of his (that I’ve read) is ‘Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World’, but ‘The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle’ also has pulp touches, and is considered his masterpiece. Both are fantastic, and would evoke this film as you read them. I think if you’ve never read him you’d really like him.
Every scene and every set piece in 2046 is exquisitely orchestrated here. The meticulous placement of props, and fluid color coordination help create a ravishing series of paintings that could be posed for showcasing in a museum. The extraordinary actors and actresses evince loneliness, sensuality and sadness, and a plaintive classical score accentuates the profundity of the film’s themes.
I thought Shubhajit and Jamie made great comments here.