Happy Together (2017)

Fantastic!

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

On-off lovers Yiu-fai (Tony Leung) and Po-wing (Leslie Cheung), whose relationship is bumpy to say the least, find themselves stranded in Buenos Aires, on a trip to the 'end of the world'. Both characters are unbalanced but Yiu-fai appears the more decent, quiet and hardworking. They constantly break-up and reunite, and the film follows this relationship (centring on Tony Leung's Yiu-fai) which for some inexplicable reason both men seem drawn to, even though externally Yiu-fai seems to have a deep resentment for the high-wired and unruly Po-wing. It's highly stylised, the use of imagery and cinematography inspired, beautifully shot and acted brilliantly. I was unfortunate in that my subtitles were ahead of themselves, but even this didn't greatly damage the brilliant pacing of the film. As Wong Kar-Wai plays with the camera, he plays with out emotions. The characters are tragic individuals, clearly yearning for some purpose, taking out each other's anger at being unable to discover said purpose on the other, but the film's ending leaves us with hope. Very emotional and poetic film.

Are you tired of coming out gay films? Films with a domineering mother (the cause of it all) unrequited love for class mates--endings with drugs and depression if not suicide?Then watch Everlasting Love. It is what I have always wanted gay movies to be-- something uplifting without all the negative baggage. Yes this film combines fantasy (really good looking male actors--well 2 of them are) with camp (what is more campy than Tango dancing in Buenos Aires?). But so what!!! I am tired of films that have you relive every dead end humiliation of gay life. I want to forget those memories I don't want to endlessly relive them!Next I want a homosexual James Bond.Did I forget to mention...this film is a work of visual art detailed in many of the other comments.

Once again Wong Kar Wai has stepped outside the realm a traditional film making and produced a piece so emotionally powerful and visually stimulating that it ranks among his best work as well as one of the greatest films to come out of the Chinese "New wave" cinema. Themes of alienation, loneliness and searching for something bleed through Wong's films like ink on a white shirt, permanently changing our perception of what great film making truly is. Centering around two homosexual, Chinese men, the film depicts modern day Argentina. Having the men as homosexuals alright draws a line between acceptance and alienation for homosexuals still struggle for acceptance today. But also having the film take place in Argentina separates these men even further to the point that they, each other, are all they have. Their relationship is really the heart of the story which goes completely opposite of the film's namesake. Not once are they happy together nor are they happy apart. The film acts as a sort of tug-a-war with these lovers constantly battling to win each other back or push each other way. Never once is one's "male" dominance long lasting, leaving these lovers continuing their love hate relationship. Wong has the power to use his sets as not only backdrops but characters themselves. Much of the film takes place in their small cramped room. The leaning walls constantly give off the feeling that their small little world is closing in about them. The room is not glorified nor is it pretty. It is dressed with gritty trash with realism so thick that it transports the viewer into the room as well. The characters look cramped in their environment even outside the room. And even outside the room into the streets of Argentina, there is never a sense of the outside world. Just the small world from work to home, nothing more. The camera is squeezed where ever it can fit and the scene is documented.The non linear story perfectly captures the life of these two characters who are literally fish out of water. Wong's fixation on alienation and searching come through more in this film than any of his others. The powerful acting propels the story and the emotional content of their relationship gives it a heart. The film is not happy nor is it very entertaining beyond the characters. Nothing much is gained and nothing much is lost yet the aesthetic beauty of the cramped and ugly Argentina background leaves a lasting impression on the viewer. Wong's ability to handle such subject matter with grace and power to evoke such real emotions, demonstrates why he is one of the great filmmakers working today and will surely be remember as one of the great filmmakers of the industry.

This movie could just have easily been about any couple, entwined in a narcissistic relationship. Yiu Fai keeps thinking that lasting happiness with Po Wing might be just a little further on, if he can just hang in there; Po Wing is, as narcissists are, insecure, and oscillates between closeness and abandonment. There are many telling sequences along the way that show how Po Wing is untrustworthy, sometimes something of a hypochondriac, and almost always maddening. Yiu Fai may think he can eventually nurture the relationship along, but it's crushing to continually be rewarded with more rudeness. It's torture to watch, horrible to go through in real life, or to watch your friends go through it - unfortunately, it's all too real. Love and loneliness might take many forms, but each end up feeling as they always will.