Why I did not try to watch this film earlier in my life? I don't know. But having watched it, it is one of those films that is going to stick with you all your life.
To me, it is Wong Kar Wai's mastery of the 'show, don't tell'. Even at that, he does not show everything. That is what pulls the audience's emotion and participation. That connection to the screen, even knowing that what is seen is fictional. It is what is magical about cinema, isn't it?
Even to the extent that what is being spoken by the characters is not cinematic. The absence of words but the screen speaks to you. Even the great Edward Hopper said, “If you could say it in words, there would be no reason to paint.” And there are so many similarities between paintings and cinema, isn't it?
This is a poetic, neo-noir, period love-drama yet it does not include the typical tropes of the genre. Set in the early 60s Hong Kong where the cultural and economic fusion between the East and the West was at its hottest. Thus, this brings into play another key element in cinema, time.
Near the end where the auteur marked it with a historic event in Cambodia, where the protagonist played by Tony Leung visited Angkor Wat and whispers into the ruin his words to be forever embedded (no tongue-sucking involved). A least literal manifestation of Andrei Tarkovsky's idea of cinema is the act of sculpting in time. (Note how the clock is shown many times by Wong Kar Wai)
The question is if Tony Leung's and Maggie Cheung's characters have feelings toward each other or if it is their spouse they see while they are on it. The answer to that is also shown, yet not spoken, but it is not important. Also by Tarkovsky, “A book read by a thousand different people is a thousand different books.”
What got me the most is how peculiar that 'love' is usually found outside the normal social structure, in this case, marriage. And how it is usually the one that sticks with you through time. This reminds me of another similar 'love' scenario which is between the lovers in the film La La Land. Even though in the end the girl is married, the accidental contact with her past love brought her back into that feeling, which is most probably absent in her current married relationship. Does love is less or absent in the social norm, hierarchy, and structure? It is the thrill of challenging the system and the almost definite pain that follows and rides the tragedy?
Romeo and Juliet. Tristan and Isolde. And the demonization of it by the power that be as the sinful and punishable act of adultery.
This one will last for a long time.
