2046 is a 2004 film written, produced and directed by Wong Kar-wai. An international co-production between Hong Kong, France, Italy, China and Germany, it is a loose sequel to Wong's films Days of Being Wild (1990) and In the Mood for Love (2000). It follows the aftermath of Chow Mo-wan's unconsummated affair with Su Li-zhen in 1960s Hong Kong.
There are four main story arcs, listed in approximate order below. In typical Wong fashion, they are presented in non-chronological parts. Knowledge of Days of Being Wild and In the Mood for Love is assumed, but not necessary to understand 2046.
2046 Part I
Returning to Hong Kong after years in Singapore, Chow has become a suave ladies' man to cover up his pain from losing Su. Chow meets Lulu taking her home but accidentally keeps her room key. Upon returning the key, Chow later learns that Lulu was stabbed the night before by a jealous boyfriend.
Wang Jing-wen and Wang Jie-wen Part I
The landlord's daughter Jing-wen moves is seeing a man her father strongly opposes. Eventually, Jing-wen breaks up with him. The next tenant is Jing-wen's younger sister Jie-wen who attempts and fails to seduce Chow. Soon after, Chow runs into financial difficulties so he starts writing a series.
Bai Ling Part I
Bai Ling, a cabaret girl and high-class prostitute seeking a long-term relationship. Bai runs into Chow after her boyfriend leaves her before a planned trip to Singapore and they become friends. The relationship quickly turns sexual. Chow wants to keep the relationship purely physical, continuing to see other prostitutes; when Bai realizes she has feelings for Chow and asks for exclusivity, Chow refuses and they break up. Bai then returns to prostitution.
Jing-wen Part II
After Bai leaves, Jing-wen is released from institutional care and still depressed over her previous relationship. Chow develops feelings for Jing-wen and attempts a relationship but nothing develops as she is still in love with her previous lover.
Jing-wen Part III
Jing-wen gets engaged. Depressed over the loss of Jing-wen, Chow runs into Bai Ling and believes she is likely to remain content with her misery. He resolves to get over Su.
Bai Part II
Some time later, Bai calls Chow and they go out to dinner. She informs Chow of her plans to leave for Singapore, asking for a reference and plane fare.
Su Arc
Chow met Su after arriving in Singapore, financially spent. Su agrees to help him win money so he can return to Hong Kong and they become lovers. When he asks Su to return to Hong Kong with him, Su challenges him to a final draw that Chow loses, and so she refuses to go with him and also refuses to tell him why.
When Chow returns to Singapore to visit her a second time, he does not find her and hears rumors that Su either returned to Cambodia or was killed.
Bai Part III
The night before Bai leaves for Singapore, Chow dines with her again. She insists on paying for dinner and hands him a stack of cash, each $10 bill representing a night they spent together. After dinner, Chow walks her back to her apartment and Bai begs him to spend the night. He cannot, and leaves by taxi.
Cast
Tony Leung as Chow Mo-wan, a journalist and writer, who is the film's the main character and narrator. Leung reprises his role from Days of Being Wild and In the Mood for Love.
Maggie Cheung as Su Li-zhen, the woman Chow Mo-wan loved most, and had an emotional affair with in 1962. Cheung reprises her role from Days of Being Wild and In the Mood for Love.
Gong Li as a second Su Li-zhen. Presented as a "professional gambler" and nicknamed "Black Spider", she says she's from Phnom Penh. Chow Mo-wan met her in Singapore.
Wang Sum as
Mr. Wang, he had taken singing lessons in Harbin, China.
Faye Wong's character is named "Wang Jing-wen" (Chinese: 王靖雯; pinyin: Wáng Jìngwén; Jyutping: Wong4 Zing6 Man4), identical to her stage name from 1989 to 1994.
Mimi/Lulu, a former cabaret dancer and Mo-wan's ex-lover who is still mourning the death of her boyfriend Yuddy. Lau reprises her role from Days of Being Wild.
It took four years to complete the film. During that time, production was closed because of the SARSepidemic in March 2003.[7]
It was picked up by Sony Pictures Classics for distribution in the United States, and was released on 5 August 2005.
Title
2046 has its own significance for Hong Kong, as it is 49 years after the handover of Hong Kong by the British on 1 July 1997. At the time of handover, the Mainland government promised fifty years of self-regulation for the former British colony. 2046 references before Hong Kong's special, self-regulated status ends.[7]
Critical reception
On review aggregatorRotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 86% based on 119 reviews, with an average rating of 7.40/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Director Wong Kar-Wai has created in 2046 another visually stunning, atmospheric, and melancholy movie about unrequited love and loneliness."[8] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 78 out of 100 based on 34 critic reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[9]
One of the most positive reviews came from Manohla Dargis in The New York Times, who called the film "an unqualified triumph", and praised Zhang Ziyi's performance, saying: "Ms. Zhang's shockingly intense performance burns a hole in the film that gives everything, including all the other relationships, a sense of terrific urgency." Dargis also describes the film:
"Routinely criticized for his weak narratives, Mr. Wong is one of the few filmmakers working in commercial cinema who refuse to be enslaved by traditional storytelling. He isn't the first and certainly not the only one to pry cinema from the grip of classical narrative, to take a pickax to the usual three-act architecture (or at least shake the foundation), while also dispatching with the art-deadening requirements (redemption, closure, ad nauseam) that have turned much of Big Hollywood into a creative dead zone. Like some avant-garde filmmakers and like his contemporary, Hou Hsiao-hsien of Taiwan, among precious few others these days, Mr. Wong makes movies, still a young art, that create meaning through visual images, not just words." [2]
In Premiere, Glenn Kenny gave the film four stars and ranked it as one of the ten best films of 2005:
"Insanely evocative '60s-style landscapes and settings share screen space with claustrophobic futuristic CGI metropolises; everyone smokes and drinks too much; musical themes repeat as characters get stuck in their own self-defeating modes of eternal return. A puzzle, a valentine, a sacred hymn to beauty, particularly that of Ziyi Zhang, almost preternaturally gorgeous and delivering an ineffable performance, and a cynical shrug of the shoulders at the damned impermanence of it all, 2046 is a movie to live in."[10]
"Is it worth the challenge? Of course it is. Wong stands as the leading heir to the great directors of post-WWII Europe: His work combines the playfulness and disenchantment of Godard, the visual fantasias of Fellini, the chic existentialism of Antonioni, and Bergman's brooding uncertainties. In this film, he drills further into an obsession with memory, time, and longing than may even be good for him, and his world reflects and refracts our own more than may be comfortable for us."[11]
"it's clear his [Wong Kar-wai] skills and interests have no match in today's cinema. Whatever his motives, Wong has assembled a remarkable team for this film. The cinematography, production design and editing combine for a mood of utter languor and decadence. Leung Chiu-wai continues his string of outstanding roles, while pop singer Wong achieves a gravity missing from her earlier work...it's Zhang who is the real surprise here...her performance puts her on a level with the world's best actresses."[12]
One of the less enthusiastic reviews came from Roger Ebert who, in the Chicago Sun-Times, gave the film a mildly-negative 2½ stars out of a possible four and a "marginal thumbs down" on the television show Ebert & Roeper.
"2046 arrived at the last minute at Cannes 2003, after missing its earlier screenings; the final reel reportedly arrived at the airport almost as the first was being shown. It was said to be unfinished, and indeed there were skeletal special effects that now appear in final form, but perhaps it was never really finished in his mind. Perhaps he would have appreciated the luxury that Woody Allen had with Crimes and Misdemeanors; he looked at the first cut of the film, threw out the first act, called the actors back and reshot, focusing on what turned out to be the central story. Watching 2046, I wonder what it could possibly mean to anyone not familiar with Wong's work and style. Unlike In the Mood for Love, it is not a self-contained film, although it's certainly a lovely meander."[13]
2046 opened in North America on 5 August 2005, where it grossed US$113,074 on four screens ($28,268 average).[15] In Wong Kar-wai's home country of Hong Kong, 2046 earned a total of US$778,138.[16] It went on to gross a total of $1,444,588 in North America,[4] playing at 61 venues at its widest release.[15] Its total worldwide box office gross is US$19,271,312.[4]
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released the film on DVD on 26 December 2005. Since then, it has yet to be re-released or restored in the United States. A region free Blu-ray was released by EOS Entertainment on 17 September 2014 in South Korea, as part of a Wong Kar Wai boxset.
The film finally debuted on Blu-ray in the United States on March 23, 2021 in a set compiled by the Criterion Collection entitled "World of Wong Kar-wai" and includes this film alongside 6 of his other films.[17]
