2046 Back to Index

Imdb Rating: 7.6
Genre: Drama
Directed: Kar Wai Wong (screenplay)
Country: China
Year: 2004
Duration: 129 min

Media: Hot stuff

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Actors: Tony Leung Chiu Wai (as Chow Mo Wan), Li Gong (as Su Li Zhen), Takuya Kimura (as Tak/Wang Jing Wen's Boyfriend), Faye Wong (as Wang Jing Wen/Android on 2046 Train), Ziyi Zhang (as Bai Ling), Carina Lau (as Lulu/Mimi/Android on 2046 Train), Chen Chang (as Mimi's Boyfriend), Wang Sum (as Mr. Wang/Train Captain), Ping Lam Siu (as Ah Ping), Maggie Cheung (as Su Li Zhen 1960), Thongchai McIntyre (as Bird), Jie Dong (as Wang Jie Wen)

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Description: "Where everything ends... and begins (Spanish translation)"

He was a writer. He thought he wrote about the future but it really was the past. In his novel, a mysterious train left for 2046 every once in a while...


Comment: 2046 was directed by Kar Wai Wong, who also directed In the Mood for Love. This film is also lyrical, deliberately paced, and very romantic.

Without giving too much away, the film takes place in Hong Kong and Singapore in the 60's. The main character, Chow, is a writer and womanizer. Part of the story takes place in his work, a science fiction tale called 2046.

The story is told out of sequence, with past and present jumbled. In a clever use of irony, we gradually understand that the future is being used to tell the past. Some scenes are presented early, in a way that is confusing until the context is presented later.

There are 3 female characters who are in his life, and the story is segmented accordingly.

The cinematography is beautiful. Interestingly, Wong uses 3 colors nearly exclusively: Blood red, sea green, and yellow. Sometimes he will use light to make those colors stand out, other times it is the objects themselves which are in that color.

I would characterize the story as one of love and loss. There is one poignant scene where, after he realizes what has been happening, he states that timing is crucial in love.

The film is well acted, the characters are understandable if not necessarily ones we can identify with, and the story gradually allows itself to be revealed, a peek here and a peek there, until all the pieces fall into place.

Turn off the lights, cuddle up with a glass of wine, and see this one. Well worth it.

IMDB TRIVIA FOR 2046 (2004):
- Originally conceived as a story of a hit man in Bangkok (hence the casting of Thai actor Bird Thongchai McIntyre). The hit man was to be played by Japanese superstar Takuya Kimura, and the events to be played out in a hotel in room 2046.
- Production was shut down during the SARS epidemic in March 2003.
- The print for Cannes arrived three hours before the delayed premier, escorted by police. It is the first film in Cannes' history to arrive so late that re-schedulings were necessary.
- The title of the film refers to the last year before the 50-year period the Chinese Government promised to let Hong Kong remain as it is. Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997.
- In one of the original versions, Tony Leung was to play a futuristic postman.
- The director declined the invitation to screen the film in the New York Film Festival.
- Was supposed to be the closing film of the Edinburgh Film Festival.
- The camera points to the left side of Faye Wong's face when she cries. She has problems crying with her right eye, so Wong Kar-Wai shot her crying scenes on the left side of her face. However, there is one scene where the camera films the right side of her face purposely.
- While 2046 was being filmed, a photographer from Sudden Weekly, a Hong Kong tabloid, bribed his way onto the set. After his pictures of the interior of the Oriental Hotel were published, 'Wong Kar Wai' ordered the set to be rebuilt. The photographer was subsequently sentenced to three months' jail for corruption.
- First Wong Kar-Wai film to be photographed in widescreen (2.39:1 projected aspect ratio), and the first to be photographed using anamorphic lenses.
- Each character speaks their own languages. Mr. Chow speaks Cantonese, Bai Ling speaks Mandarin, and Tak speaks Japanese even when talking to each other. Even so, they seem to understand each other perfectly.
- The title of the film is supposed to be said as, "Two Oh Four Six."

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