Movies

2046

now on DVD

"He thought he wrote about the future, but it really was the past. In his novel, a mysterious train left for 2046 every once in a while. Everyone who went there had the same intention: to recapture their lost memories." A blend of classic romance and science fiction from director Wong Kar Wai. Chow Mo-Wan (Tony Leung), a writer with painful memories of love, tries to escape from them both in life and in writing. A series of love stories alternating between this world and his fictional world of 2046 explore the depths of human passion and heartbreak. Zhang Ziyi plays Bai Ling, a woman who moves in next door to Chow and soon becomes his lover. Her most ravishing and mature role yet, a huge step past even Purple Butterfly in her growth as an actress. Gorgeous cinematography and music frame the powerful performances of actresses Zhang Ziyi, Faye Wong, and Gong Li. Ziyi won Best Actress at the 2005 Hong Kong Film Awards for her performance.

Articles

Critical Praise for Zhang Ziyi - Acclaim from film critics: "Zhang is simply phenomenal, effortlessly capturing her character's caprices and heartbreak." ..."It's Zhang who is the real surprise here. Her breakout performance puts her on a level with the world's best actresses." ..."particularly Ziyi Zhang, almost preternaturally gorgeous and delivering an ineffable performance."

In The Mood For Rapture - What you need to know, what 2046 makes unavoidably clear, is that Wong Kar-wai is the most romantic filmmaker in the world. In incandescent images of glamorous performers, he details love's anguish and rapture, which are often the same thing.... The camera, mainly manned by Christopher Doyle, prowls around the women like a lover in the first flush of passion. It captures and caresses the actresses' radiance: Lau's bold sensuality, Faye Wong's elfin resiliency, Gong Li's fragile hauteur. Zhang Ziyi, in a panoply of pouts, flirtations and surrendering smiles, is at her most ravishing and nuanced, especially when swathed in the spectacular cheongsams of costumer designer William Chang.

Postcard From Cannes - My favorite scenes at this year’s festival came in Leung’s erotic byplay - first delightful, then cruel - with the beautiful young Zhang Ziyi of Crouching Tiger fame, who startled everyone with her passionate, heartbreaking performance. Although some critics accuse Wong’s movies of looking like fashion ads, this misses the point. His great brilliance is to create the slickest, most beautiful surfaces - gorgeous sets, exquisite photography, ravishing actors - and make this seemingly perfect world ache with all the painful melancholy its beauty contains but can’t properly express.

Interview With Wong Kar Wai
TIME: 2046 features a lot of actors who are new to you, like Gong Li and Zhang Ziyi. Is it difficult to accustom them to your working methods?
Wong: The script actually develops with the characters. If you want to make a film with an actor or actress, there must be something that attracts you. I'm trying to exploit it, the quality that they might not even be aware of themselves. Normally, I don't ask people to act certain persons. It's just be you. Like Gong Li when I'm making Eros with her, I have kind of a picture what if she's a gambler, or a hustler, it would be very interesting. It's something inside her that you find.

2046: A Film Odyssey - 2046 is the grandest project of a man who, in an age of coarse and facetious movies, has the mission to reestablish the romantic tone of the grandest old films - where two beautiful people would gaze into each other's eyes and go about breaking each other's hearts.

New York Times Review - Ms. Zhang's shockingly intense performance burns a hole in the film that gives everything, including all the other relationships, a sense of terrific urgency.... The result is an unqualified triumph.




Links

MonkeyPeaches - Production news and more
IMDb - cast and credits
WongKarWai.net - 2046 news
Offical Site - Flash based, but pretty



Videos

The stylish trailer, and a couple of preview clips from the film. Trailer - 9 MB mov At the Door - 3 MB rm Peeking- 1 MB rm
Scenes from 2046 : In the Car - 6 MB rm Passion - 6 MB rm Afterwards - 6 MB rm
Behind the Scenes In the first shot, she is berating the man for having another girlfriend. The director's voice over talks about how she learned the 60's style dancing. Ziyi says the tight dresses and high heels gave her problems when practicing. She ends by saying that she is excited to see how the movie will turn out, and that she had fun making it. 12 MB avi
Ziyi Footage A special feature from the Hong Kong DVD titled "Ziyi Footage" with behind-the-scenes shots, including Ziyi speaking (squeeking) "Happy New Year." 24 MB avi

Audio Clips

2046 has one of the best soundtracks of any movie in recent years. It draws upon the work of 10 different composers with styles ranging from Cuban jazz to opera.  There's nothing subtle about this soundtrack, Wong Kar Wai clearly wanted the music to be dramatically equal to the magnificent cinematography, and his ear for music is as refined as his eye for visual beauty. You can purchase the soundtrack from YesAsia.

"2046 Main Theme" by Shigeru Umebayashi (5 MB)
"Perfidia" by Xavier Cugat (4 MB)
"Decision" by Zbigniew Preisner (2 MB)
"Adagio" by Secret Garden (3 MB)

Pictures

Promotional images

Wallpapers

DVD stills

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