This movie should win an award for Most Ironically Titled Film.
The story of this extremely dysfunctional gay couple is a moderately interesting one; it's well told, despite major distractions (see next paragraph); the acting by all concerned is extraordinarily convincing, and if I were judging acting alone I'd vote this one a "ten." But I could only vote a "four" because of the horrendously off-putting visual component.
Why, oh why, do directors, even skilled directors like Mr. Wang Kar-Wai, insist on using all the gimmicky tricks available to them, and decking out their films garishly and awkwardly so that the viewer is distracted from everything but the flashy and quickly tiresome images on the screen? It was bad enough to employ alternation of black-and-white and color, but when we are finally rewarded with color (and for some reason, though I'm a black-and-white-film fan, I felt that this entire movie should have been in color--maybe only as some relief from the drabness of the relationship depicted), the color has to be altered, saturated, the images made grainy and/or overexposed, etc.?
I feel the technical aspect of this film constitutes a severe disservice to the work of two exceptionally fine actors--three, if you count the brief appearance of Chen Chang, who is perfect as the young, bored, but very sweet and good-hearted tourist whom the protagonist may or may not see more of later.
What a missed opportunity. It's a pity that one of the strengths of film--the enormous range of technique it lays at the disposal of creators--is also all too frequently a seductive trap.
The story of this extremely dysfunctional gay couple is a moderately interesting one; it's well told, despite major distractions (see next paragraph); the acting by all concerned is extraordinarily convincing, and if I were judging acting alone I'd vote this one a "ten." But I could only vote a "four" because of the horrendously off-putting visual component.
Why, oh why, do directors, even skilled directors like Mr. Wang Kar-Wai, insist on using all the gimmicky tricks available to them, and decking out their films garishly and awkwardly so that the viewer is distracted from everything but the flashy and quickly tiresome images on the screen? It was bad enough to employ alternation of black-and-white and color, but when we are finally rewarded with color (and for some reason, though I'm a black-and-white-film fan, I felt that this entire movie should have been in color--maybe only as some relief from the drabness of the relationship depicted), the color has to be altered, saturated, the images made grainy and/or overexposed, etc.?
I feel the technical aspect of this film constitutes a severe disservice to the work of two exceptionally fine actors--three, if you count the brief appearance of Chen Chang, who is perfect as the young, bored, but very sweet and good-hearted tourist whom the protagonist may or may not see more of later.
What a missed opportunity. It's a pity that one of the strengths of film--the enormous range of technique it lays at the disposal of creators--is also all too frequently a seductive trap.