I wish I was a good salesman but I am not and thus selling this great movie is going to be a struggle but I re-watched In the mood for love and this recently and I will give it a shot. 2046's flaws are evident early on, its bulky and a bit too complicated for its own good, it feels like a hot mess mainly set in 60's in Hong Kong, partly set in futuristic 2046, movie isn't linear jumps back and forth between the two timelines, there is some Singapore and Cambodia as well. This is not helped by the fact that the this maybe the least welcoming film of Wong Kar Wai, it expects the most out its viewer than any other WKW film if I do say so myself. 2046 follows Days of being wild and In the mood for love and is the final film in the series (at least currently). It's extremely crucial to have thoroughly watched In the mood for love before approaching this film, also though not critical it's still advisable to watch Days of being wild as the ties between this and 2046 run deep (even some music pieces from DOBW find their way in 2046), its interesting however that DOBW and ITMFL have little in common though.ITMFL is a pretty sad film as it deals with betrayal, being hurt by someone you love and falling in love again but eventually not having it at the end. Well 2046 raises the bar a lot higher it's a downhill journey from the first shot, Chow who had his heart broken and was almost devastated in ITMFL is trying to pick up the pieces but he falls over and over again all through the film. It felt profoundly sad, so much so that it may have left ITMFL a bit behind when it comes heavy emotions. Chow is now a shell of a man he used to be, and is still very much in love with Su Li Zhen from ITMFL he is looking for distractions to take his mind of her but Chow often ends up hurting a lot of women (very similar to York from DOBW). However unlike York who was shown as being young, charismatic and even ruthless, Chow is a smooth operator and is good with words and whenever he behaves what can easily be classified as 'douchy' the movie instantly jumps to his defense showing he is damaged goods and Su Li Zhen really did a number on him. Yuddy/York from DOBW was a very complicated protagonist wherein his motives and behavior was questionable, 2046 again pushes the limits here it's an extremely detailed character study about Chow who unlike York is also shown to be kind and selfless at times. Like I said it's an extremely complicated movie with a lot of layers.The actors are terrific in this film, Tony Leung has become my premiere actor to watch from Hong Kong and my respect for his abilities has only gone up after seeing his performance in this film. The supporting actors are great as well and help in immersion, but Zhang Ziyi deserves a special mention she is a complete powerhouse in the film, was very impressed by her and she even stole the spotlight from Leung in a couple of scenes. Just like other WKW films, 2046 is theme driven. ITMFL was forbidden romance and 2046 is recovery/coming back to life from the brink of destruction, this theme is supplemented by beautiful music and images (WKW's last film with long time cinematographer collaborator Christopher Doyle). If you ever had even one serious failed relationship in your life 2046 will touch you in ways few films on the same subject matter ever would.That being said, I will request you guys to sit through the film it can frustrate a lot of people to not give it a fair chance.

You reach a certain point in your life - that is, your movie-watching life - where you can pick the winners and turkeys pretty much straight off the bat. I don't need to watch 2 hours of video colour-splat anymore to know I've been had: When something doesn't manage to engage you by almost the half-hour mark, and alllll you've seen is incomprehensible messy and disjoint attempts at being 'deep', you know. You just know.From reading the reviews here now, it looks like I was spot-on.This film belongs in the throwout-bin with Mr.Nobody, another film which is guilty of being the same species of epic waste of everyone's time. Actually - there is a possible use for these idiot creations: installation art in the background at galleries! Just turn the sound down and there you are.How DO these films get made?Is it a matter of all the grants-money people getting sucked into the same dinner-hall cocaine-mist as the makers and the whole shebang all joining in worshiping one another with cries of "Oh darling you are so talented!"?

A brilliant movie!If The Hours has 3 story lines at 3 different time lines intertwined, 2046 is a collection of bit of stories, real and imagined ones, at different time period. All of theme comes together as a philosophic story about love.The story followed Chow Mo-wan in In The Mood For Love after he left Hong Kong for Singapore. If In The Mood For Love was about a secret platonic love, 2046 paints a picture of sorrowful reminiscence. The majority of the movie was taken place in side the old small room, with studio light, yellow and black tin, giving the audience a feeling of suffocation and confine..Kar Wai Wong masterfully exploited metaphors and repeative details to portray the character. The story of Wang Jing Wen and her Japanese boyfriend is a reflection of the story of Chow Mo-wan and his lover Su Li-Zhen in In The Mood For Love. The last words of Chow to Black Spider – "The day you leave your past behind, go find me" – was he talking to her, or to himself? Could he ever escape his own past?The movie features wonderful monologues. It has a beauty of Chinese literature, little words, lots of meaning."All memories are traces of tears…"For more reviews, please visit: http://voicemotion.wordpress.com

Hong Kong director Kar-Wai Wong's recent film 2046 is actually a continuation of the story he began in his 2001 art-house hit In the Mood for Love. Well, sort of, because while In the Mood had a fairly straightforward narrative everything in this new film is open to interpretation. Asian superstar Tony Leung is back as Chow Mo Wan but this is not the gentlemanly journalist we met in the first film. This Chow spends his days writing pulpy erotic fiction and his nights gambling, drinking and womanizing. In a voice-over narration Chow tells us about a sci-fi story he is working on. It's about a young Japanese man (Takuya Kimura) riding a train through time to 2046 where he hopes to recapture his lost memories and achieve emotional closure. The movie toggles back and forth between the writer's real life in 1960s Hong Kong and the futuristic fictional world of his imagination. Gradually Chow realizes he is writing about himself. Like his affair with carnal next door neighbour Bai (Crouching Tiger/Flying Daggers martial arts babe Ziyi Zhang as you have never seen her before), his unspoken feelings for Jing Wen (Faye Wong), the landlord's lonely young daughter and his liaison with an inscrutable lady gambler dubbed the Black Spider (Li Gong). None of these relationships last. "Why can't it be like it was before?" asks a heartbroken Bai and those words stay with him as he walks away because the women he meets in real life will never be able to measure up to the idealized perfection of the lost love who lives on in his memory. And so, like the character in his story, Chow will keep on travelling towards a place that only exists in his mind. If this sounds confusing you're not alone. "Actually we don't have an idea of what the story is about," Leung tells a French TV interviewer in a DVD featurette. Wong's films are not noted for their crisp linear plotting. He is all about mood, atmosphere and emotion. The camera-work is almost voyeuristic, shooting through windows, peering through peepholes, catching reflections in a mirror. The pace is languid, almost dream-like, the music on the soundtrack suffused with a gorgeous melancholy. A bittersweet sense of regret lingers in the eyes of these characters, like smoke curling lazily from a cigarette, creating an aura of sensual intrigue. Call it romantic noir. Some reviewers has likened Wong to a modern day Asian equivalent of the late great Federico Fellini and if that sounds appealing this may be the flavor you have been missing.But be warned: like many foreign delicacies this film can be an acquired taste.