The year 2046 will mark the 50th anniversary of the Hong Kong handover to China, and it was this idea that inspired Wong Kar Wai to make the sequel to In the Mood for Love. A retro-futuristic love story, 2046 revolves around the idea of change, exploring how memories of the past inevitably shape our actions in the present. Set in 1960’s downtown Hong Kong, the story reintroduces the character Chow Mo Wan (Tony Leung), by now a ladies’ man and writer of martial arts novels, with an irreparable condition of heartbreak. In a Hong Kong nightclub in 1966, Chow bumps into an old flame whose room number, 2046, brings back painful memories. Nostalgic, Chow moves in next door, allowing the stream of beautiful women in room 2046 to fuel his fictional narratives. The symbolic number titles the sci-fi novel in which he weaves his real-life love stories into a complex futuristic infrastructure. 2046 is a city, a place in the future where people go to recapture lost memories, from which nobody ever returns. Chow’s fictional self flees through time on a light-speed train, accompanied only by an android hostess, desperate to leave the past behind. But the memories resurface and merge with the present, until he can no longer differentiate the two. Chow’s journey from 2046 is a lonely one, his longing for the past making it not only the place he leaves behind, but also his destination. True to his methods, Wong Kar Wai left the story of 2046 to be completed on the set, partly improvised by the stunning array of actors. Although surrounded by such high-calibre actresses, Tony Leung remains the unrivalled focal point of the film. Stylish, eloquent and poetic, 2046 embodies not just the meeting between past and present, between reality and fiction, but the plot also echoes the love affairs from previous Wong Kar Wai films, such as In the Mood for Love and Days of Being Wild, making it an unmissable keystone in the directors body of work.
Wong Kar-Wai's gorgeous loose follow-up to In the Mood For Love in which Tony Leung is the writer who has moved to a hotel to complete his science-fiction story. A familiar swoony atmosphere dominates. Both seductive and baffling, it's a must-see film.
The year 2046 will mark the 50th anniversary of the Hong Kong handover to China, and it was this idea that inspired ... more >
‘All memories are traces of tears’ - 2046
The year 2046 will mark the 50th anniversary of the Hong Kong handover to China, and it was this idea that inspired Wong Kar Wai to make the sequel to In the Mood for Love. A retro-futuristic love story, 2046 revolves around the idea of change, exploring how memories of the past inevitably shape our actions in the present. Set in 1960’s downtown Hong Kong, the story reintroduces the character Chow Mo Wan (Tony Leung), by now a ladies’ man and writer of martial arts novels, with an irreparable condition of heartbreak. In a Hong Kong nightclub in 1966, Chow bumps into an old flame whose room number, 2046, brings back painful memories. Nostalgic, Chow moves in next door, allowing the stream of beautiful women in room 2046 to fuel his fictional narratives. The symbolic number titles the sci-fi novel in which he weaves his real-life love stories into a complex futuristic infrastructure. 2046 is a city, a place in the future where people go to recapture lost memories, from which nobody ever returns. Chow’s fictional self flees through time on a light-speed train, accompanied only by an android hostess, desperate to leave the past behind. But the memories resurface and merge with the present, until he can no longer differentiate the two. Chow’s journey from 2046 is a lonely one, his longing for the past making it not only the place he leaves behind, but also his destination. True to his methods, Wong Kar Wai left the story of 2046 to be completed on the set, partly improvised by the stunning array of actors. Although surrounded by such high-calibre actresses, Tony Leung remains the unrivalled focal point of the film. Stylish, eloquent and poetic, 2046 embodies not just the meeting between past and present, between reality and fiction, but the plot also echoes the love affairs from previous Wong Kar Wai films, such as In the Mood for Love and Days of Being Wild, making it an unmissable keystone in the directors body of work. < less
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