Hong Kong film director Wong Kar-wai's next and latest film, 2046, is now doing the rounds. First shown at the Cannes Film Festival in 2004, when Wong presented an unfinished film, the result received a luke-warm response. No surprise there. Since when, more filming, thinking, editing... Hey, presto! The 'finished version' is now on release. I haven't seen it yet. I am still relishing Wong's previous film In the Mood for Love. First I saw that film. Later, I bought the music soundtrack. Very recently, I picked up a cheap and legitimate copy of Mood on VCD. Yeah, I think Mood is a great film. Would that there were more such films. The New York Times (NYT reg-required) has a truly awesome review of Wong's latest cinematic pleasure, 2046. Desire and Loss in the Curve of a Back:
"Like some avant-garde filmmakers and like his contemporary, Hou Hsiao-hsien of Taiwan, among precious few others these days, Mr. Wong makes movies, still a young art, that create meaning through visual images, not just words. And so in "2046," the wallpaper swirls find a visual echo in the curls of a metal grille that, in turn, echo the loops of some cursive handwriting, the curlicue of smoke that rises from Jing's lighted cigarette and the impossibly long curve of Bai Ling's arched back."
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