Happy Together (Wong Kar Wai, 1997)

Adding new shadings to Wong Kar-Wai’s already extremely rich filmography, Happy Together is another of the director’s celebrated, deeply felt love stories… this one just so happens to be about two men. I don’t know how Wong Kar-Wai does it, typically starting to film a movie without a finished script… just an idea and some characters to guide him, but he always seems to be able to capture the purest form of relationships, regardless of gender. Of course because of the improvisational nature of his filmmaking his shoots are known for their extensive (read: indulgent) length, but Kar-Wai has a natural ability to whittle away the extraneous footage, parsing them down to very often find the masterpiece buried within. Maybe it’s his style in and of itself that results in such honest moments, maybe only through spontaneity can there truly be genuineness? Whatever it is, it helped him walk away with the Best Director and Best Picture awards at Cannes in 1997, becoming the first Chinese auteur to do so. And what resulted from the 6 month shoot (and undoubtedly massive amount of footage) is a story about Yiu-Fai (acting God Tony Leung) and Po-Wing , the combustible nature of their partnership and why individuals so often return to lovers that have left them heartbroken in the past and finding the inner strength to be able to leave your sadness behind you. Po-Wing is the type of restless soul that seems trapped in a relationship, seeming to so often get bored by its repetition. But despite his tendency to break up almost by habit, Yiu-Fai can not seem to say no to him when Po-Wing will undoubtedly return, always so simply saying “let’s start over.” Just as so many of Wong Kar-Wai’s films tend to be, this one is about individual, heartfelt moments complimented by visually perfect cinematography often capturing these instants as if by accident… such as through a window glass or from a handheld, intensely personal perspective. And as usual, the music is there to offer a beautiful, melodic companion to it, enhancing the tone and the atmosphere that Kar-Wai conjures up. Admittedly, the film never shies away from the sexuality of this companionship, which at first made me slightly uneasy (the first scene throws you right into their bedroom), but as in a film like Brokeback Mountain after a point you forget… you’re just amazed at their ability to capture love so vividly on screen.