2046 (2004)

Director:

Kar Wai Wong

Writer:

Kar Wai Wong (screenplay)

Release Date:

29 September 2004 (Hong Kong)

Genre:

Drama | Fantasy | Romance | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

Where everything ends... and begins (Spanish translation)

Plot:

He was a writer. 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...

Plot Keywords:

Train | Writer | 1960s | Hong Kong | Singapore

Awards:

22 wins & 30 nominations

Cast

Tony Leung Chiu Wai	...	Chow Mo-wan (as Tony Leung)
Li Gong	...	Su Li-zhen
Faye Wong	...	Wang Jing-wen / Android
Takuya Kimura	...	Tak / Wang Jing-wen's Boyfriend
Ziyi Zhang	...	Bai Ling
Carina Lau	...	Lulu / Mimi / Android
Chen Chang	...	Mimi's Boyfriend
Jie Dong	...	Wang Jie-wen
Maggie Cheung	...	Su Li-zhen
Thongchai McIntyre	...	Bird (as Bird Thongchai McIntyre)
Wang Sum	...	Mr. Wang / Train Captain
Ping Lam Siu	...	Ah Ping
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Ting Yip Ng	...	(unconfirmed)

Also Known As:

2046 - Der ultimative Liebesfilm (Germany)

MPAA:

Rated R for sexual content.

Runtime:

129 min

Country:

China | France | Germany | Hong Kong

Language:

Cantonese | Japanese | Mandarin

Color:

Black and White | Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Malaysia:18SX (uncut version) | Malaysia:U (cut version) | Hungary:16 | Canada:14A (Ontario) | Hong Kong:IIB | Brazil:16 | Portugal:M/12 | Finland:K-11 | France:U | Germany:12 | Ireland:12 (video rating) | Ireland:15A (original rating) | Italy:T | Netherlands:12 | Singapore:NC-16 | South Korea:18 | Spain:13 | Switzerland:10 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:10 (canton of Vaud) | UK:12A | USA:R | China:17

Filming Locations:

China

Company:

Arte

Trivia:

The wrapping paper on the gift Mr. Chow gives to Bai Ling is very faintly imprinted with the words "Dragon Seed". The Dragon Seed Co. Ltd. is a chain of Hong Kong department stores that was first incorporated in 1948.

Quotes:

Bai Ling: Why can't it be like before? Please don't go. Stay with me tonight. Let me borrow you.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Afstiros katallilo (2008)

Soundtrack:

The Christmas Song

When you left a woman truly loving you, she always gets back to her ex, why? 2046 gives the answer.

A journalist quits his job, when his novels became top-seller. To be able to finish his last novel he needed inspiration, so he revisits a cheap motel which he has lived bittersweet memories with his ex-love, 2 years ago in 1967. The story takes place in 1969 in the same motel, once the novelist decided to stay there.

The novel he was writing has been a science fiction at first. Whereas, he's driven by a serendipity that the name of his novel "2046" is also the room number in which he and his ex has shared a love. Into that room, a harlot settles in. He enriches his novel by putting himself as the true love of the harlot staying at the next door, in room 2046. As destiny would have it, the harlot really falls in love with him. By courtesy of her swallowing his bait, the novelist subjoins an erotic component into his novel. Let's gather together the first phase of the movie: We have one man and two woman. First woman left him 2 years ago, and he is still in love with her. Then at the present time, the second woman falls in love with him.

The second phase is the vengeance of the novelist from the woman he loved in 1967. This phase forms the essence of the novel: The future in the year 2046. Future is under the control of dreamers. Everybody who can dream and who can love, can travel into 2046 deep in their heart to recapture their lost memories. The novelist never goes there, 'cause he knows that if he goes once, he would never return to the present time, and would stay stuck in the future living in the past. Instead of making himself go, he sends her inconstant love into 2046 as an android woman. Living as an android, the woman doesn't have a heart. But a young man falls in love with her. She yearns for him so much, but she could never express her feelings nor the look in her eyes could ever change; since she has no heart no more. She realizes that she deserves to be loved, and denies herself. She begins suffering of the love she remained lighthearted to the novelist 79 years ago. Witnessing her repentance, the novelist forgives her love; and wants her back at the present time in 1969.

At the last phase the novelist loses himself before his love finds him. Because his novel concludes to an end which the novelist doesn't love her true love anymore, he depletes his inspiration. Not being conscious of himself starting his novel while he was together with his true love, he became unaware of the woman he used to love wholeheartedly returning to him.

What an amazing story that is, including tons of short stories inside, and the director Wong Kar Wai uses a giddy and ravishing cinematography for telling his story. The storyline and the plot never comes together, turning into a complete mess. It's the viewers' duty to solve the puzzles of the storyline, to match the short stories with their attributions and to set in order of the straight-going novel versus unsteadily progressing movie; which altogether I shared with you above.

Both director and the writer of 2046, Wong Kar Wai presents a novel adaptation in the movie, and a movie adaptation in the novel; in conclusion a mixture of two arts on silver screen.