At first I was a little put off by the film, I thought maybe I had outgrown my Wong Kar-wai phase. Having just seen "My Blueberry Days" I thought perhaps I could no longer take his movies seriously. The beginning of "Days of Being Wild" is almost a parody of a Wong Kar-wai movie. It's all his traits; sentimentality, poetic voice overs, narration, an obsession with clocks, all packed together in about five minutes.
After the initial adjustment phase I remembered why I like his movies so much. The thing that won me over this time was the dramaturgy, the construction of the scene. It is very classically Hollywood the way his movies are motivated and pushed forward, in this case in the mode of a melodrama. The scene where Leslie Cheung goes to the night club to beat up the lover of his mother in order to get back the earrings she gave to him is pure melodrama. Everything, from the fore-grounding of the earrings to the seduction of the watching chorus girl is perfectly executed and is one of my favorite scenes in the movie.
It was a very enjoyable experience and I look forward to watching more movies at that theater. I believe "Happy Together" is playing on Tuesday. Maybe I will skip my Korean class to go check it out. Maybe.
