2046 is more like the sequel to In The Mood for Love. In the latter mentioned movie, Chow was an innocent young man caught up in a complicated affair with Maggie Cheung after both of them discovered that their respective spouses were cheating on them with each other.
The movie ended with a desolate Chow trying to put his feet on the ground again after losing Su Lizhen(Maggie Cheung).
I did not realize that 2046 was a sequel only until i was about 1/4 into the movie. His fate with women is not too good eh? Either he plays them around like some game or he falls in love with the women he cant have. Yet he's not out of league when he fell for Faye Wong's, Gong Li's, or Maggie's character.
Perhaps that's because after losing Su Lizhen in the first movie, 2046 only shows how despondent a man can be after being rejected in love. in the beginning of 2046 he said: 'he started playing the game and had many one night stands, after all, how many 'once-in-a-lifetime' can you get?' With every woman he got involved in from Bai Ling to Wang Jing Wen, he was just attracted to the bits that resembled his Su Lizhen. I don't think he was actually in love with Wang Jing Wen, just in love with the fact that she can conjure up the memories of him writing with Su Lizhen in the hotel (in the first movie).
His fiction of 2046 being played out directly in the movie was just a further metaphor that was necessary for a complicated man like him to find out what he was after. In the ending of 2046, we see him, drunk and alone, riding home in a taxi. Where are all the women in his life?
Although the show tended towards dragginess at times, the screenplay was well written, the cast displayed impressive acting skills, the lighting's, stage settings and soundtrack were unique though not exempting In The Mood for Love. You can well say that Wong Kar Wai is a Tarantino in the Chinese Movies circle.
My advice is to watch In the mood for love and 2046 back to back. Perhaps after that, the mystic behind the latter will fade and the real plot comes out.
The movie ended with a desolate Chow trying to put his feet on the ground again after losing Su Lizhen(Maggie Cheung).
I did not realize that 2046 was a sequel only until i was about 1/4 into the movie. His fate with women is not too good eh? Either he plays them around like some game or he falls in love with the women he cant have. Yet he's not out of league when he fell for Faye Wong's, Gong Li's, or Maggie's character.
Perhaps that's because after losing Su Lizhen in the first movie, 2046 only shows how despondent a man can be after being rejected in love. in the beginning of 2046 he said: 'he started playing the game and had many one night stands, after all, how many 'once-in-a-lifetime' can you get?' With every woman he got involved in from Bai Ling to Wang Jing Wen, he was just attracted to the bits that resembled his Su Lizhen. I don't think he was actually in love with Wang Jing Wen, just in love with the fact that she can conjure up the memories of him writing with Su Lizhen in the hotel (in the first movie).
His fiction of 2046 being played out directly in the movie was just a further metaphor that was necessary for a complicated man like him to find out what he was after. In the ending of 2046, we see him, drunk and alone, riding home in a taxi. Where are all the women in his life?
Although the show tended towards dragginess at times, the screenplay was well written, the cast displayed impressive acting skills, the lighting's, stage settings and soundtrack were unique though not exempting In The Mood for Love. You can well say that Wong Kar Wai is a Tarantino in the Chinese Movies circle.
My advice is to watch In the mood for love and 2046 back to back. Perhaps after that, the mystic behind the latter will fade and the real plot comes out.