HAPPY TOGETHER (Chun gwong cha sit) (1997) (Hong Kong) (Kar Wai Wong) (Language: Cantonese, Mandarin subtitled in English)
"Happy Together is
a road movie,
a love story, and an
experimental film —
all rolled into one."
Choosing a best film of the last decade is not an easy task. Every movie is its own animal, its own unique experience. Choosing one means excluding every other terrific film I've seen over the decade of the 90's, and that seems virtually impossible. How can I choose one film, leaving behind another great movie like Babe, or Crumb, or Il Postino? What about The Piano, or even a terrific sleeper like Hands on a Hard Body? Loved all of them.
However, as I attempted to jot down some of my favorite flicks from the '90s, reviewing and re-reviewing each one in my head, I continually found myself drawn back to one film: Wong Kar-Wai's Happy Together. Considering this cinematic dark horse as "the best of the decade" came as a surprise, even to me, and yet I remembered being completely stunned and supremely moved by this provocative film from Hong Kong. So, I decided to watch it again and see if it held up as well as it did in my memory.
The tale of two gay lovers from Hong Kong playing out the final days of their doomed relationship as expatriates in Buenos Aires, Happy Together is a road movie, a love story, and an experimental film — all rolled into one. Using an extremely effective improvisational acting technique and stirring in various camera effects — including the use of both color and black-and-white film stock, grainy images, jagged cuts, as well as over- and underexposed footage — director Kar-Wai creates a thematically realistic, visually edgy film.
Granted, this style of filmmaking is not particularly new. We've seen it many times, from the glory days of Jean-Luc Godard and John Cassavetes to the latest from those Dogma95 fanatics. But what's more impressive about Happy Together is its ability to take these innovative techniques to such awe-inspiring heights, resulting in a film that is both wildly cinematic and emotionally devastating — the very definition of what I would call a "best" film. While pushing and stretching the limits of film making, Happy Together manages to be alternately funny, sexy, hip, profoundly romantic, and truly heartbreaking. It's airy enough to challenge varied interpretations and yet cohesive and specific enough to nail more than a few universal truths.
Anyone who has ever suffered through a painful relationship breakup will find pieces of themselves in this film. Light-years more accessible than those dated works by Ingmar Bergman, Kar-Wai captures the very essence of a modern breakup in Happy Together; from the self-defeating fury of trying to make something work that doesn't, to the temporarily euphoric thrill of falling back into a bad relationship, and, finally, to the pain of letting it go.
Tony Leung (Hard Boiled, Chungking Express) and Leslie Cheung (Farewell My Concubine), both superstars in Hong Kong, give amazing performances as lovers Fai and Po-Wing, respectively. Every bit as ferocious and volatile as George and Martha in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Fai and Po-Wing are utterly believable characters — presented warts and all. Fai is the introspective, loyal, thoughtful, and cautious one. Po-Wing is impulsive, rowdy, sluttish, and passionate, but also very selfish. Both grapple with their own immaturity at dealing with such a charged relationship, often overwhelmed by their feelings and occasionally resorting to fist-fighting or other childish antics.
Barely surviving in Argentina, they bicker and make love, endlessly trying to "start over," hoping to make the relationship work. Though Fai has the temperament for monogamy, the flighty Po-Wing constantly feels caged-in by the relationship. Fai buys multiple packs of cigarettes, lining them neatly against a wall so that Po-Wing won't make excuses to go out cruising at night. Po-Wing knocks the cartons to the ground furiously, feeling trapped and suffocated. The irony of the film's title is all too apparent.
The central metaphorical image in the film is a waterfall, located in a nearby area called Iguazu. No matter how they try, Fai and Po-Wing just can't seem to get to that special place together. Either their car breaks down or they get lost, or it's just too damned cold outside. In one scene, Po-Wing stares longingly at a small lamp with a waterfall painted on its shade, sitting on a table at the other end of the room. He looks at it through the bars of the bed-frame where he lays, as if imprisoned. No matter how he tries, he can't get to that waterfall, to that better place. As Fai narrates, "We wanted to go home after [seeing] it, but we lost our way." Often playing image against narration, the film frequently rivals Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven in its ability to exist as cinematic poetry.
There is a wealth of astounding images and moments in Happy Together: a long, beautiful sequence in which Kar-Wai focuses his camera on the brooding, mystical waterfall itself while "Cucurrucucu Paloma" by Caetano Veloso plays on the soundtrack; a scene in which Fai attempts to record a farewell message for his friend Chang (Chang Chen), then spontaneously begins to cry, for the first time feeling his own sadness. There is a quiet moment in which the lovers ride in the back of a cab, together but also alone; and a scene where Po-Wing pours water on Fai's back, indicating that he still loves him.
There is a breathtaking scene in which Fai and Po-Wing begin to dance in their kitchen together. They hold each other closely, swaying to the music and then kiss passionately. The scene, simple and moving, is easily the most romantic moment captured on film this decade.
Later in the film, when it's time for Chang to move on, he promises to leave Fai's sadness at a lighthouse at the end of the world. There is the hint of a possible future relationship for the two of them down the road. They hug briefly and Chang moves away. Fai narrates, "For a moment all I can hear is my own heart beating. Does he hear it too?"
Happy Together is an unsentimental romance; a groundbreaking acquired taste with a storyline that hits on a subliminal level. It's a movie about gay lovers that somehow manages to defy being pigeonholed as a "gay" film, another significant element of its greatness. By the time that classic Turtles tune "Happy Together" (performed here by Danny Chung) plays over the end credits, we've witnessed a heartbreaking story of two people who really do love each other but can't seem to make it work — a universal story told in an exciting new way. In a decade when syrupy, unabashed crap like Forrest Gump can pass for serious film making, I am more than a little thankful for the likes of an undaunted and innovative artist like Wong Kar-Wai, and for films like Happy Together. ~ Robert Payne
Cinema of Poetry: "Happy Together" deals with romance that could be homo-, hetero- or whatever, and even though homoeroticism is such an essential element to the narrative, the protagonists' love affair is a pretext for the emergence of their decentered identities, their search for love and friendship and, most important, it ends on a note of hope for future encounters. All this in a poetic tone, one that demands a continuous aesthetic reconstruction, hardly understood (or accepted) by those who are encapsulated in a world of conventional film making. ~ ZeGatti, São Paulo, Brazil
Film Information: 'Happy Together'
Web: Cast, Bios and Additional Details at IMDb
Director: Kar Wai Wong
Writer: Kar Wai Wong
Cast: Full Cast, Crew & Credits
Genre: Drama | Romance
Awards: 5 wins & 12 nominations
Runtime: 96 min
Spoken Language: Mandarin, Cantonese, Spanish
Subtitled in: English
Film Preview Clip: 'Happy Together'
Download Film Files: 'Happy Together'
.
Posts
