I recently bought the Wong Kar-Wai Collection, which contains 5 early movies, made by one of my favorite contemporary directors. It seems that one of them, Days Of Being Wild, had been given a limited re-release in America last year. It is an excellent film that introduces several elements that will be seen in subsequent films. Kar-Wai has said that this is the first part of a continuous story that is continued in the films In The Mood For Love and 2046. All three films take place in the 60s; they explore the themes of thwarted love/impossible love and desire with rakish men and seductive women filmed in a cool atmospheric sensibility. Kar-Wai is another director who makes good use of musical motifs to evoke emotion in his films.
Leslie Cheung plays, Ruddy, a sort of incorrigible cad who seduces the lovely girl next door, Maggie Cheung (who appears in all three films), but discards her when she suggests marriage-he is not the marrying kind. He then tames the wild showgirl Mimi, played by the spirited Carina Lau. There is a subplot involving a policeman, Tide, who becomes a sailor played by Andy Lau. The Ruddy character, who is a sort of James Dean “Rebel Without A Cause”, makes some romantic gestures as do other characters, the types of gestures that will appear in other films and give Kar-Wai his romantic reputation. It’s interesting to go back and see his earlier films in light of the more recent ones. He has been refining his skills as a filmmaker; it is obvious the seeds for his extraordinary talent were already there in the beginning.
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