Happy Together

Happy Together

Happy Together

This movie should win an award for Most Ironically Titled Film. The story of this extremely dysfunctional gay couple is a moderately interesting one; it's well told, despite major distractions (see next paragraph); the acting by all concerned is extraordinarily convincing, and if I were judging acting alone I'd vote this one a "ten." But I could only vote a "four" because of the horrendously off-putting visual component. Why, oh why, do directors, even skilled directors like Mr. Wang Kar-Wai, insist on using all the gimmicky tricks available to them, and decking out their films garishly and awkwardly so that the viewer is distracted from everything but the flashy and quickly tiresome images on the screen? It was bad enough to employ alternation of black-and-white and color, but when we are finally rewarded with color (and for some reason, though I'm a black-and-white-film fan, I felt that this entire movie should have been in color--maybe only as some relief from the drabness of the relationship depicted), the color has to be altered, saturated, the images made grainy and/or overexposed, etc.? I feel the technical aspect of this film constitutes a severe disservice to the work of two exceptionally fine actors--three, if you count the brief appearance of Chen Chang, who is perfect as the young, bored, but very sweet and good-hearted tourist whom the protagonist may or may not see more of later. What a missed opportunity. It's a pity that one of the strengths of film--the enormous range of technique it lays at the disposal of creators--is also all too frequently a seductive trap.

From director Kar Wai Wong (Chungking Express, In the Mood for Love), this film was featured in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, and it wasn't even rated that well by the critics, I still gave it a chance though. Basically, in Argentina, homosexual couple Lai Yiu-Fai (Tony Leung Chiu Wai) and Ho Po-wing (Leslie Cheung) from Hong Kong have arrived to take a holiday on the road, but their relationship goes adrift when something goes wrong. To save up for a trip to go back home disillusioned Yiu-Fai gets a job working in a tango bar, while Po-Wing is beaten and bruised and his partner cannot find a way to be in an intimate relationship. Po-Wing is after all they go through not ready to settle down with his partner, and Yiu-Fai next finds a job working in a Chinese restaurant and meets Chang (Chen Chang) from Taiwin who is more youthful. Life for Yiu-Fai takes a new spin, supposedly for the better, while life for Po-Wing continues to shatter and go downward, but in the end they do contact each other once more, but without any good coming from it, but one is able to return to Hong Kong. I didn't understand all of the story going on, apart from the obvious gay relationships going on throughout, and I agree with the critics, it is trying a little too hard to appear indulgent, but it does look good with colour and imagery, that's probably why it would be considered a must see, so it's a relatively interesting romantic drama. Okay!

Spoilers herein. I have found a Wong film that I cannot recommend. I thought it wouldn't happen: I've seen `Fallen Angels,' `In the Mood for Love' and `Chunking Express.' These are works of a visionary mystic. The first two are especially brilliant. `Angels' moves faster than our mind can adjust to the world, shifting among narrators and narrative modes; `Mood' is at the other extreme, minimal, repetitive, moving deeply under our ability to follow a narrative thus provoking an altered state. Both take huge risks in opposite directions. Both are highly intellectual in how they refer to themselves and their making within the story. `Happy' is placed in between the two in terms of risk, no barrage but no meditation. And along the way, no self-reference except the brief smell of sobs on a tape played at a lighthouse at the end of the world. Its a great image, but not integrated into the Jarmusch-like flow of drifting lives. There's still the visual poetry, but it isn't shaped to have power here, not like his other projects, not like his stuff that is reinventing our imagination. Please go to those other projects if you have not yet. Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 4: Has some interesting elements.

Lai Yiu-fai and his lover Ho Po-wing decide to get away from Hong Kong and head to Argentina. Even as they make the trip their relationship is continuing to fall apart and it is not long before Yiu-fai is on his own and working to get money for his trip back home. But when a beaten up Po-wing turns up at his flat, Yiu-fai takes pity on him and lets him stay, even though it is clear that Po-wing wants to just pick up the relationship like nothing ever changed. To date "In the Mood For Love" has been my favourite Kar Wai-Wong film because it featured his usual clever direction without taking away from the film, great acting and a story that had great emotional involvement. So I was looking forward to his newest film (2046) and also took the opportunity to look back at some of his earlier films; tonight it was the turn of this film. Opening with the relationship already in decline, it is hard to really get into the two main characters early on and, for this and other reasons, I found them to be a bit distant and, while I could understand what they (Yui-fai in particular) were feeling I couldn't really connect with them on any real level. The story is therefore interesting but not as impacting as it ever should be. The script doesn't help this too much and generally I felt it was all a bit lacking in the substance that I could see it was trying to have. The direction is, as usual, a mixed bag. On one hand it is award winning and loaded with nice shots and touches that have earned him the reputation he has for being an interesting director. I'm not sure if it is me though, but I can't get as gushing as other reviewers seem to about his films mainly because I find that too often he gets in the way of the film rather than topping it off. Here is not the worst example of this failing but at times the film is more about the direction and framing of scenes than it is about the material – certainly large sections of the film are more interesting in regards Wai-Wong than the characters. Despite not knowing what he was committing himself to, Leung does a good job with all of his material and seems to have a real understanding of his character – almost covering for the fact that the film doesn't help us that much. The late Cheung is good but he is secondary to Leung and his character is difficult to really get into. Chang is good in a smaller role but for me the film belonged to Leung – an actor who is almost always worth watching. Overall this film is a good example of Wai-Wong's strengths and his weaknesses. His direction is impressive and the film looks great throughout but at the same time it feels like this was the focus rather than the actual story and characters being really well developed. Worth seeing for what it does well but many viewers will feel a bit cold thanks to the lack of emotional involvement and strong character development.

Innovative, special and inspired. I runned into the cinema, having no idea of what kind of movie was expecting me. It was a big surprise. The story was really nothing that would interest me in anyway, but this is the proof, that beauty is on the form . What an amazing film! Full of resources and passion. They say it wasn't all new, or maybe any of it, but it was elegant, and unusual. I was touched, and amazed. For me it was the revelation of a genius. His following works confirmed this impression. Wong Kar Wai is a great artist. Thank you very much!

"Happy Together " is essentially a study of a couple falling in and out of love. Their sex - they are a gay couple from Hong Kong - hardly matters: the film could just as well have been about a straight or lesbian couple. The fact that very near the beginning there is as explicit a scene of male anal intercourse as one is likely to encounter in mainstream commercial cinema is far from gratuitously sensational. As the film is meant to start on a passionate high, this is the most convincing way of doing it - so be it. The director has the integrity not to repeat this for the reason that the couple never quite feel the same about each other again - indeed there is a great deal of alienation. Both have arrived in Argentina in search of work. Although the jobs undertaken by one of the pair, Lai, are fairly menial, first as a doorman at a Tango club and then a kitchen worker, he seems more stable than his companion, Ho, who does little but hustle, gets beaten up fairly early on and spends much of his time in an incapacitated state. In the room they share there is a lampshade depicting the Izuazi Falls. The cascade almost becomes a symbol for the relationship they would ideally like to achieve. Early on they hire a car to look for it but lose their way. After their relationship has finally broken Lai finds it, but as he is alone, the landmark seems sadly lacking in excitement. There is a third main character, a straight guy from Taiwan, who works in the kitchen with Lai. With his amiable self-sufficiency he seems to have been introduced to provide a balance to the angst of the main pair, a device that works well as it reinforces our sympathy for them. "Happy Together" looks rough and crude. A hand held camera is used with frenetic nervousness. Sequences of monochrome alternate with scenes that are almost perversely over-coloured. I know it is fashionable to give some films a nightmarish look. Here I found it a distinct stumbling block to be got over for the sake of a work that says so much about loneliness, homesickness and the struggle of people simply to be "happy together".

Despite winning Best Director at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival for Happy Together, director Wong Kar-wai has decidedly not made a follow-up worthy to the cinematic invention and wonder of the brilliant Chungking Express. Although the director employs the same French New Wave-style techniques showcased in his earlier work, and infuses the picture with a garish, saturated glow, the dreary story of two lovers who have traveled halfway around the world to Argentina only to break up and then make up and then break up again (and so on) very quickly wears out its welcome. Despite the directorial fireworks brought by its innovative director and a pair of solid performances from Leslie Cheung and Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Happy Together is really no different from a slate of like-minded, late 20th century relationship movies.