HAPPY TOGETHER |
| CREDITS: Director: Wong Kar-Wai Cast: Leslie Cheung, Tony Leung & Cheng Chan.
Hong-Kong (subtitled) 1997 INTRODUCTION: The 'honour' of being the first non Euro-American director to have a film reviewed here at the Lair goes to Wong Kar-Wai for his compelling tale of a gay couple searching for escape. SYNOPSIS: Ho (Cheung) and Lai (Leung) are a young gay couple who flee to Argentina to start a new life. The relationship quickly breaks down and both go their separate ways. Desperate to earn the passage back, Ho becomes a doorman at a club, and Lai turns tricks, the two soon run into each other once again, and re-ignite their self destructive love affair. REVIEW: The film clearly demonstrates its origins as a short extended into a full length feature with the injection of extra capital, the first half hour is a monochrome masterpiece with a strong plot and an emotional conclusion, after this the film turns to colour and meanders on with no clear idea where it is going. Due to this the film seems overlong, even at 92 mins. By basing a film on Manuel Puig's obscure Novel "The Buenos Aires Affair" Wong Kar-Wai finds himself filming in an unknown country, thus side-stepping the difficulties of the hand-over, and this comes through clearly on screen. The sights and sounds of urban Argentina are as unfamiliar to him as they are to us and indeed the characters, and Wong Kar-Wai's attempts to capture them on camera often seem to leave the impression that this is a bizarre travelogue rather than a love story. Indeed from black & white to colour, from hand-held to helicopter shots, from Wellsian angles to time-lapse photography, and even upside down footage, no cheap camera trick goes unplundered in cinematographer Christopher Doyle's attempts to portray the disorienting situations the two lovers find themselves enmeshed in. Cheung carries the film with his convincing portrayal of the trapped by circumstance Ho and Leung puts in a career-topping performance as the out of control manipulator Lai. The two leads are constantly at each others throats, in this extremely dysfunctional relationship, constantly talking, never listening. This is highlighted when the quiet and thoughtful Chang (Chan) turns up to complete the menage-et-trois but he's never really given the opportunity to outshine the stars, who are themselves overwhelmed by the cinematography. Wong Kar-Wai concentration on character-driven pieces like 'ChunKing Express' has made him the critics' favourite, although the Chinese authorities have banned the film. Of the current Hong-Kong directors, over the likes of Chop-Suey meister John Woo and Ringo Lam, and by taking home the best director gong from Cannes '97 for this effort, he has clearly indicated that he is back on top form after the disappointing 'Fallen Angels'. Compelling performances let down by an ill-defined plot and self-indulgent direction. Mutt's Rating: *** |