Happy Together

Leslie Cheung as Ho Po-Wing
Tony Leung Chiu-Wai as Lai Yiu-Fai
Chang Chen as Chang

It’s weird even to see, let alone think, how Wong Kar-Wai had managed to pull off with a film which did not have much of a plot. We could see the two main characters, both men, constantly bickering and getting on each others nerves in a moth-eaten tenement which, when prolonged, seems to be like reviewing a broken video tape.

Stranded in Argentina, Ho Po-Wing (Leslie Cheung) and Lai Yiu-Fai (Tony Leung Chiu-Wai) are trying to jump-start their strained relationship. Ho is flighty but a cuter half of the two and the manlier Lai, on the other hand, is a malcontent who looks as if there’s a piece of oversized lemon stuck in his mouth (Strange... Doesn't Leung always look like that?). For the one thousand and six hundredth time, Ho ditches Lai, with an obviously reasonable explanation that being with Lai is unbearably boring. After their break-up, Lai lands himself as a doorman at a mediocre tango bar while Ho is forever being seen with different six-feet or so tall European machos on the dimly-lit streets of Buenos Aires. “Let’s start over again.” is Ho’s mantra and is ever so useful when their stormy affair hits a deadlock. Later, Ho drags his badly bashed-up body to Lai’s door and this is when his effective catchphrase comes into use.

There is a unique trend in Wong Kar-Wai’s works. The characters do not talk much and, instead, use narration in the background recounted by one of the leads; in this case, it is Tony Leung who did two-third of the talking. Thus, most of the information that is meant to be conveyed to the movie-goers has to depend on the actors' every glance and movement, that is, their acting ability. Both of them presented their usual reliable performances and like a reviewer said, “they each give performances that would be worth Oscar nominations.”

One of the highlights in this film is Christopher Doyle’s breathtaking cinematography. All in misty yellow, black and white, it gave the viewers a surreal feeling. No wonder people tend to say that Wong Kai-Wai’s films are pretentiously artistic, which he heatedly denied.

Before the last 30 minutes of the film, everything was in a linear progression but when the attention started to focus on a boring young Taiwanese, Chang (Chang Chen) and Lai, the film followed suit by transforming into a brown bottle of sleeping pills. Apparently, this change of script was due to Cheung’s sudden departure for his larger-than-life concert in Hong Kong. A pity, really, because I was starting to grow fond of Cheung’s bitchy character.