A couple of flats in a grey building, constant pouring rain and a couple of deranged lovers and friends of the night are the recipe for this film. There's not a whole lot more going on than that. A silent playboy, who lets the words of the girls he seduces bounce of like the ever-pouring rain. His name is York. York wants to reach out to his real mother, whom he never met. One of York's love acquaintances seeks comfort in the friendship with a cop she meets in the rain. That cop is also reaching out for something. He wants to be a sailor, his dream that somehow got buried in the bleak life between the grey blocks. There is a sense of reaching out to something beyond the depressing life in that dark building complex, and at the same time a undertow keeping these flying birds, as York later calls them, back.Between the grey there's a constant use of green. Green blinds, walls, plates, curtains and sometimes we see the green jungle, the place York visits to see his mother. The ominous green is just as well explained as the cheesy martial-arts fight scene (including B-movie-style punch sounds) that happens somewhere in the last act: Not at all. There's chunks of explanations here and there, but these are not there to shove some kind of meaning down your throat. They're there to encourage you to ponder. When the credits roll you know that something definitely touched you, at the same time wondering what it is.Days of Being Wild is like Jim Jarmusch for weary poets. People love each other but go separate ways, friendships are made in the night but there's no guarantee of seeing your friend again. "We may meet again." Bleak, grim, touching.

This movie was WKW's second feature film, the first to collaborate with cinematographer Chris Doyle, the first to follow his artistic obsessions. The movie had a great cast: Leslie Cheung, Maggie Cheung, Carina Lau, Andy Lau, Rebecca Pan, Jacky Cheung, all these along with Tony Leung Chiu Wai (who played in a cameo). Despite all these assets the movie started by being a commercial failure (as the director told once, in Korea the attendance even threw things at the screen). The style of Wong Kar-Wai (or the style of Chris Doyle, or both) was simply too new, too unexpected.Years have passed and Wong Kar-Wai (along with Chris Doyle) became well-known worldwide, and each of their movies is now considered as iconic. I wouldn't get tired watching any of their movies as many times as it gets: each time I understand a nuance in more depth.What could be told in a few words about this movie? It's time and love, and it's a meta-story: other stories built within the main story, each of the embedded stories with a life and a poignancy of their own, unfolding without haste, while not impeding on the main story - chapels in a cathedral. You have the sensation of being there, everything has such an immediacy that it's like it happens to you, right there during the screening. There is the main character, a womanizer dreaming to find someday his estranged mother, meanwhile seducing and then getting rid of everything he meets, abusive and careless in all his relations, with men and women alike; there are the girls, seduced and abandoned; there are the other men, witnessing all this and falling for the girls, hopelessly... and it's like you are there, in the skin of each personage, as each of the embedded stories is flowing, as the main story is flowing, you are the womanizer, leaving sentimental carnage on your way, you are each girl, enjoying your erotic accomplishment, rejected, despaired, you are each of the men, empathizing with the girls, trying to help them, longing for them, you are the substitute mother, ambiguous in your feelings for the boy you raised, you are the real mother, not showing anything which is in your heart, not even to yourself.Days of Being Wild is considered as the first part in a loose trilogy dealing with love and time (together with In the Mood for Love and 2046). Actually love and time remained the preoccupation also in the movies following this so-called trilogy: think for instance at The Hand, WKW's episode from Eros, made in 2004 - and the preoccupation remains also in My Blueberry Nights (which is also a meta-story, by the way).All these movies mirroring love and time in countless ways. Time marked by the passing of histories of love replacing the passing of years, down to implosion: stories of seduction, stories of desire, stories of love just imagined, stories of longing, stories of despair. Love trying to destroy the reality of time: "I've heard that there's a kind of bird without legs that can only fly and fly, and sleep in the wind when it is tired; the bird only lands once in its life... that's when it dies." Time as illusion, love as illusion - time has lost any significance, because it was replaced by histories of love - while love exploded and lost any meaning from the very beginning - reality as illusion: "the fact is that the bird hasn't gone anywhere; it was dead from the beginning."

Though it has been argued that 'A Fei Zheng Chuan' (aka 'Days of Being Wild') is the first set of the trilogy which is completed by 'Fa Yeung Nin Wa' (aka 'In the Mood For Love') and '2046', it 'looks' different from the other two films. Kar Wai uses less colour, more shadow, rain and heat and more rawness. The tone is much darker than in 'Fa Yeung Nin Wa' as the film is set in the 50s. The music is beautiful and effectively used. And, here too Kar Wai ends up making a powerful product. Though this film was a box office failure, it is an artistic victory.'A Fei Zheng Chuan' tells the story of 6 individuals whose lives are interconnected by each character's search and struggle for an identity. It's about loneliness, unrequited love, lost love, the search for love, and how the search continues. Kar Wai clevely brings up the theme of sex (without showing any nudity). The writing is excellent and the characterization is strengthened by superb and unique performances. The late Leslie Cheung's Yuddy is not a very likable person but we do sympathize with this man and recognize him. Maggie Cheung as Su gives one of the most subtle and finest performances. Carina Lau is energetic and terrific as Mimi. Rebecca Pan gracefully downplays her part. Andy Lau's Tide and Jacky Cheung's Zeb too are relatable and the actors are nothing short of remarkable. Actually, I recognize all the characters in this film.I loved the cinematography, especially the long shots. One of my favorite shot is the introduction of the scene that glides from the Phillipine streets to Yuddy and Tide in a lunch bar. This is one fine example of skillful camera-work. The shaky camera (which thankfully isn't overdone) and the close-ups that mostly take place during conversations and intimate moments between two characters work very well. Doyle's camera-work simply guides us through the lives of these characters.Summing it up, 'A Fei Zheng Chuan' works on many levels. It is an excellent study of characters, it 'tells' a universal story in a poetic way and it is a fine cinematic experience.A bird that never lands will one day suddenly seize to exist.

Days of Being Wild is the first film I've seen directed by Wong Kar-Wai as well as the first time I've seen any of the actors that I'll now list here: Leslie Cheung, Maggie Cheung, Andy Law, Carina Lau, and Tony Leung. Those beginning scenes with Leslie and Maggie are some of the most erotically charged I've seen in movies yet and I haven't seen too many adult dramas as you've probably guessed if you've read all my comments so far. The gradual, quiet, and eventual shattering desperateness that involves most of the characters made this movie very compelling even during very slow scenes in which nothing happens. Both Maggie and Carina Lau are sexy in their own way with their individual scenes with Leslie Cheung and their one confrontation is one of my favorite scenes here. Also loved Andy Lau's policeman character and his keeping Maggie company as she recovers from her affair with Leslie. Just about everything is compelling about Days of Being Wild though I admit being confused with Tony Leung's only scene at the end. Knowing that an unfinished sequel exists based on that frame makes me hope to one day get to be able to view it eventually...