Rent Days of Being Wild on Amazon Video (paid link)
Written by: Jeffrey Lau, Wong Kar-Wai
Directed by: Wong Kar-Wai
Starring: Leslie Cheung, Maggie Cheung, Andy Lau, Tony Chiu-Wai Leung, Jacky Cheung
Rated: NR [PG]
Watch the trailer
Plot
A man tries to find out who his real mother is after the woman who raised him tells him the truth.
Verdict
I really like this, but it's more of a film school movie. For general audiences it depends, for movie enthusiasts, historians, and students this is a watch it. I don't think the average person would care for it. This doesn't follow a typical plot line. This doesn't give you much. It's a musing on loneliness. Each of these characters wants something unobtainable. They fail to fill that desire, and there are no surprise happy endings.
It depends.
Review
I'm a fan of Wong Kar-Wai after
In the Mood for Love and Chungking Express. His movies are unique in that my opinion improves a few days later as I think about these movies. They stick in your mind as they don't hold your hand and explain everything.
The synopsis really doesn't cover this movie. Multiple intertwining stories form the plot. This is nearly a series of vignettes except for Yuddy who connects the characters. Yuddy (Leslie Cheung) seeks his birth mother. His former girlfriend Li-zhen (Maggie Cheung) befriends a police officer, Tide (Andy Lau). Eventually Yuddy and Tide meet.
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| Leslie Cheung plays Yuddy |
None of these people are happy. They yearn for something. Yuddy's girlfriends love Yuddy more than he loves them. Unsurprisingly those relationships don't last. The movie signals the end of Yuddy's first relationship when Li-zhen talks about a wedding and Yuddy is dismissive. That's the end of that, and most movies wouldn't be so subtle. This movie expects the viewer to fill in the gaps.
Yuddy hopes finding his birth mother will provide meaning. Li-zhen longs after Yuddy, despite Tide who likes her. He doesn't state he likes her, and thus that relationship doesn't progress. Yuddy's friend longs for a girl that doesn't return his interest. Everyone wants something they can't get. Even the look of the film conveys that. The look is dark, almost drab. They chase the unobtainable. Nearly every scene is pushing that point, but it refrains from exposition.
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