A Famous Chinese Fillm:2046

Home

A Famous Chinese Fillm:2046

2046 is a Cinema of Hong Kong movie written and directed by Wong Kar-wai, released in 2004. It is a sequel to Days of Being Wild (released in 1991) and In the Mood for Love (released in 2000). It follows the love-life of Chow Mo-wan in 1960s' Hong Kong but includes some science fiction elements.

Title

2046 is the number of the hotel room in In the Mood for Love in which Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung's characters meet to write their kung fu serial.

In the movie 2046, "2046" is the number of a hotel room occupied by Lulu, and later by Bai Ling at the Oriental Hotel, while Tony Leung's room number is 2047.

In the same movie, the main character (Tony Leung) writes science fiction stories, in which 2046 is a popular year to which people time-travel. The stories are titled "2046" and later "2047" (a collaboration with Faye Wong's character).

The year 2046 is 49 years after the handover of Hong Kong on July 1, 1997, a possible allusion to Mainland China|the Mainland government's promise of One country, two systems|fifty years of self-regulation for the former British colony.

Plot details

The main line of the movie takes place in Hong Kong, in the "Oriental Hotel", between 1966 and 1969. Some flashbacks show the main character (Tony Leung) in Singapore. Some parts of the movie show pieces of the 2047 science fiction story that Tony Leung is writing.

A herald of Wong's respect for his imagination, as well as a summary of his previous films, 2046 is a ground-breaking film in Wong's career, much like La Dolce Vita to Federico Fellini. As Chow Mo-Wan uses his personal experience to imagine "2047", he manages to face his troubled past. Similiarly, Wong Kar Wai uses his previous personal experiences, already portrayed in his earlier movies, to imagine "2046", a film that houses his trademark sentimentalism, allowing his very self to push ahead into his realm of imagination.

Awards

In April 2004, the film was nominated for the Golden Palm Award at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival, later receiving mixed reviews.
In March 2005, it was awarded Best Film at the Hong Kong Film Awards. Additionally, Tong Leung and Zhang Ziyi were awarded best actor and actress for their roles in the film. Other awards included best photographer, best art director, best constume design, and best original music.

Filming details

A total secrecy surrounded the movie before its release, and this led to a lot of speculation as to the significance of the number "2046", many believing that it would be the year in which the movie would be set, and that it would be a science fiction film. It also became an in-joke that the title would actually refer to the year of release.

The film took a whole four years in making, and the production was suffering from bad luck; for an example, the production was shut down because of the SARS epidemic in March 2003. At last, it premiered during the 2004 Cannes Film Festival as a competitive film (the reels arrived straight from the laboratory causing a delay in the schedule), yet Kar-Wai pulled the film off after the premiere to continue editing it. Kar-Wai was reportedly editing it all the way to October, and it was at last finished and given to the public to see in late October.

It has been picked up by Fox Searchlight in the United States of America, but a release date is yet to be announced.

Wong Kar-wai and his films

Wong Kar-wai (王家卫 Wáng Jiāwèi) born July 17, 1958 is a Hong Kong film director.Born in Shanghai, China, he moved to Hong Kong with his parents at the age of five and graduated from the Hong Kong Polytechnic College in graphic design in 1980. After graduation, he enrolled in the Production Training Course organized by Hong Kong Television Broadcasts Limited and became a full-time scriptwriter. Between 1982 and 1987, he wrote about ten scripts, covering an array of genres from romantic comedy to action drama. Of these, he considered Final Victory (最后胜利; 1986 Patrick Tam) his best script.

Since 1989, Wong Kar-wai has directed eight feature films and won numerous awards, including the best director's prize at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival for Happy Together. He was also one of the first film-makers in Hong Kong to establish his own independent production company, called Jet Tone Films Ltd. in English.

Despite being a former scriptwriter, one of his trademarks as a director is that he works largely through improvisation and experimentation involving the actors and crew rather than adhering to a fixed script. This has caused him some trouble when the filming of In the Mood for Love had to be shifted from Beijing to Macau after Chinese authorities demanded to see the completed script. The time-consuming method can also be credited for Wong's films taking so long to complete, as well as his unique style. A running joke amongst the crew has been that he would finish his film 2046 in the year 2046.

In 2001 Wong Kar-wai directed the short-film The Hire: The Follow as part of the BMW films initiative.

Wong Kar-wai's latest film is my blueberry nights , released in 2008.

< Prev		Next >

China Yellow Pages