Regrets we may have a few...

2046 (Cantonese; 2004)
Writer, Director: Wong Kar-Wai

Our life is like a moving speed-train. We catch glimpses of experiences that excite us and poof, it is gone. We yearn to immortalise the pleasant encounter's memory, but unfortunately, it is not always possible. The journey itself is so unpredictable that the last delightful experience may not be the best, the best may yet be on the horizon. Or maybe, that was it! Oh, life is so uncertain. 

Are all memories traces of tears and is nostalgia a bad thing? Does living in the memory of the past a wrong thing? Things that we learn in the past are the guiding lights for future battles, but somehow sometimes we still feel we accidentally let something slip by too prematurely or inadvertently. Regrets we may have a few. 

For these, the writer creates a fictitious world/city/future where memories are permanent and can be re-captured. Nobody knew for sure if such a place existed but, nobody who went there ever returned. That is, except the protagonist, Chow. He wanted to change.  He wanted certainty.

This is a rare science fiction that is not commonly seen in the Chinese cinema. Being a Wong Kar-Wai's creation, it is told in a disjointed form with many timelines crisscrossing each other. This film is the final offering of a loose trilogy (the others being 'Days of  Being Wild' [1990] and 'In the Mood for Love' [2000]), based on the experience of love. It is a visually satisfying presentation that brings back the nostalgia of mid to late 1960s Hong Kong.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

In the mood?

In the Mood for Love (Cantonese; 2000)
Director: Wong Kar-wai

This film must surely be a fruit of a labour of love. It is such a joyful experience to watch as the viewers are cradled back to a Shanghainese community's claustrophobic surroundings in 1962 Hong Kong.

It is a story of a close-knit group tenant, specifically of two couples, in an apartment building. Two spouses who are often left alone by their busy working partners end up developing feelings for each other. The busy partners in real fact are embroiled in an affair, between themselves. The scorned spouses discover a common interest, create a platonic relationship but soon realise it is romantic. They resist the temptations to be as low as their partners, despite the circumstances of time and the lure of their biological attractions.

The theme of this story segues nicely into a discussion I had with my friends recently. What is this thing about marriage? Is it a mere a public declaration of a property much like when Vasco da Gama hoisted his flag in the shores of a particularly cold Christmas morning to claim Natal as the property of the Portuguese King Emmanuel?  Is it an injunction to limit his sexual prowess to a single named party? Is it a decree to ensure the union's earning member's responsibility to provide for the economic and biological needs?

Believe it or not, the Hindu scriptures have looked at marriages as the souls' union rather than physical bodies. It is a continuum of their karmic evolution. Sex does not come in the equation. It is perfectly normal to have a sexless marriage. Polygamy and polyandry were accepted in ancient Bharat but not accepted in the modern legal system. My research shows that various dharmic texts like the Manu-Smriti and Vedas have classified marriages into eight forms - Brahmana, Daiva, Rishis, Prajapati, Asuras, Gandharva, Rakshasa and Pisaka. The first four forms of marriages are done with the blessings of a father figure. The Asura type is a form of bride selling. Lovers in 'love marriages' would make secret pacts of their union utilise the Gandharva rite, using an animate object or a person as proof. Rakshaha and Pisaka marriages are frowned upon and are deemed criminal. It is equivalent to the bride abduction and 'date-rape' in a modern setting.

The decision of union of the individuals and matrimony is all about an individual's perception. Sometimes we decide on life matters and feel it is warranted to satisfy our inner desires and personal intent. Whether copulation is a mere biological act or a divine cosmic dance of the feminine and masculine forces is a personal preference.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

In the spring of youth...

Days of Being Wild (1990)
Director: Wong Kar-Wai

What is the thing that keeps a person plunge deep into a relationship so toxic and still longs to be embroiled in a never-ending imbroglio of heartaches and melancholy? Is it just physical attraction or a sense of achievement, a kind of trophy? Is it some kind of masochism or playing victim to gain attention?

Is this the same power of love that made King Edward VII abdicate his crown for a divorcee with two living ex-husbands? Is it merely a hormonal surge at the spring of one's youth or a debt that needed to be settled if relationships bring in baggage and its encumbrances?

Something that springs up quite so suddenly may fizzle out just as quick when the fluff disappears. Then what? Do it all again? But then, by then, there would come too many webs of entanglement and spoils of love that are just too difficult to detach. It appears that it is a play of time. Invariably, with the passage of time, the ludicrousness of all these may appear all so plain.

This film brings me to the time in my childhood when I used to watch those intense black-and-white Cantonese movies over the local telly. The only thing here is that this film is in colour. The same tight-knitted rooms and the narrow roads on hilly terrains were there.

In summary, the story, set in the 1960s, is about a philandering young man, York, with his upbringing issues. His adopted mother refuses to divulge the whereabouts of his biological mother for fear of abandonment. The adopted mother has her own problems, with the bottle and her frequent affairs with numerous young men. York's first dejected lover finds solace in the company of a foot policeman. York's second beau is an obsessive cabaret dancer. Their relationship is best described as predatory - each preying on the other for personal gratification. As York's adopted mother is about to leave for the USA with a new lover, she reveals York's parentage. He was born from a union of a prostitute and a Philippine aristocrat. York leaves for Philippines only to be ignored by his biological mother.