bix171
11-25-2002, 11:42 PM
Flawless. Criticism is pointless; critique is mandatory. In this rumination about love and the passage of time, Wong Kar-Wai presents himself as a perfect interpreter of film language and there are so many levels of analysis to choose from it’s almost impossible to know where to begin. Everything onscreen and in the text is completely under Wong’s control, from each exquisitely structured shot (his use of walls to frame narrow passageways is astonishing) to the graceful, perfectly placed tracking camera (the cinematography is by Christopher Doyle and Pin Bing Lee), from the subtle mix of neon and natural colors to the gorgeous costuming (by William Chang) intended to highlight so many moods and desires, from the straightforward storytelling to the ambiguities of movement and action (every nuance is open to interpretation and every interpretation has merit), from the soundtrack’s use of a doleful string quartet to the tropical simplicity of Nat King Cole’s Spanish crooning, and, finally, from the truly sublime performances of Maggie Cheung Man-yuk and Tony Leung Chiu Wai, playing neighbors whose spouses’ affair unintentionally allow them to find a true but painful love to their wonderful supporting cast (particularly Ping Lam Siu, Rebecca Pan and Lai Chen). One of the crowning achievements in all of cinema, unforgettable and haunting.