Happy Together (1997)

A couple take a trip to Argentina but both men find their lives drifting apart in opposite directions.

Director:

Kar-Wai Wong (as Kar Wai Wong)

Writer:

Kar-Wai Wong (as Kar Wai Wong)

Stars:

Leslie Cheung, Tony Chiu-Wai Leung, Chen Chang

7 wins & 19 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Leslie Cheung	...	Ho Po-wing
Tony Chiu-Wai Leung	...	Lai Yiu-fai (as Tony Chiu Wai Leung)
Chen Chang	...	Chang
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Gregory Dayton	...	Lover
Shirley Kwan	...	(scenes cut)

Storyline

Yiu-Fai and Po-Wing arrive in Argentina from Hong Kong and take to the road for a holiday. Something is wrong and their relationship goes adrift. A disillusioned Yiu-Fai starts working at a tango bar to save up for his trip home. When a beaten and bruised Po-Wing reappears, Yiu-Fai is empathetic but is unable to enter a more intimate relationship. After all, Po-Wing is not ready to settle down. Yiu-Fai now works in a Chinese restaurant and meets the youthful Chang from Taiwan. Uhf zacnjb-Fai's life takes on a new spin, while Po-Wing's life shatters continually in contrast.

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Plot Keywords:

loneliness | happiness | salsa music | gay couple | internal monologue | 

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Genres:

Drama | Romance

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Details

Country:

Hong Kong Japan South Korea

Language:

Mandarin Cantonese Spanish

Release Date:

30 May 1997 (Hong Kong)

Also Known As:

Happy Together

Filming Locations:

Iguazú National Park, Argentina

Box Office

Budget:

$4,200,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$153,096, 14 November 1997

Gross USA:

$187,508, 23 November 1997

Company Credits

Production Co:

Block 2 Pictures, Jet Tone Production, Prénom H Co. Ltd.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

96 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Black and White Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The Chinese title is an idiom that suggests "a glimpse of something intimate." The literal translation is "spring light at first glance."

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Goofs

Before Fai push starts the old car, the engine has already started while it is standing still.

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Quotes

Lai Yiu-fai: Turns out that lonely people are all the same.

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Crazy Credits

In some prints, Jacques Picoux (the French subtitle translator) is listed twice in a row in the closing credits.

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Connections

Referenced in In Conversation with Armie Hammer, Timothée Chalamet, Michael Stuhlbarg & Luca Guadagnino (2018)

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Soundtracks

Bar Sur II
Live Recording

User Reviews

Cinema of poetry

Aw-kommon's notes on "Happy Together" are typical of those who cannot approach a film without aligning it with definite paradigms and secure standards. In this case, the paradigm is "Midnight Cowboy" -- a film that belongs to a totally different genre, was written and shot according to "naturalistic" procedures of Hollywood commercial cinema and, most of all, deals with romance from a quite different perspective. In "Midnight Cowboy" redemption of homoeroticism comes through death, a strategy that was quite revealing of the morals that prevailed at the time the movie was produced. "Happy Together", on the other hand, deals with romance as if it could have been homo-, hetero- or whatever, and even though homoeroticism is such an essential element to the narrative, the protagonists'love affair is a pretext for the emergence of their decentered identities, their search for love and friendship and, most important, it ends on a note of hope of future encounters. All that in a poetic tone, one that demands a continuous esthetic reconstruction, hardly understood (or accepted) by those who are encapsulated in a world of conventional filmmaking.