02-13-2013, 09:45 AM
As Tears Go By by Wong Kar Wai (1988)
What an ugly bit of gang-angst celluloid, full of bullies and beat-em-ups. Maggie Cheung shows up in a surgical mask at her cousin Andy Lau's dump in Hong Kong. She stops chain-smoking long enough to tell him she's there to see a doctor about a lung problem. Okay, so she isn't chain-smoking, but she does smoke. It's the men who truly bogart up a fog throughout.
Andy Lau slowly falls in love with his cousin, which is reciprocated, but his hot-headed younger brother Jackie Cheung Hok-yau is forever running afoul of the gangs and needs constant saving. This state of affairs persists from start to end and suffices for the plot.
Maggie Cheung is incredibly young in this film. While her porcelain Valentine-heart of a face is in full evidence, she hasn't developed any features yet -- no eyes, nose or mouth, just a wonderful canvas of possibility. Andy Lau is equally young, and while his canvas does have a full set of features, it still lacks stretcher bars. As for Jacky Cheung Hok-yau, he's his usual bulbous self. Every part of his face is bulbous in an unfinished way.
The story unfolds in a very hot Hong Kong. Because this is a Wong Kar Wai movie, the women sweat whereas the men glow. There are so many shots of neon-lit guy-dives full of menace, with tough guys sneering with their smokes. Okay, maybe I just imagined the neon, but you know what I'm talking about. Maggie Cheung has very little to do other than languish and try to sprout features.
There's not much more to say about the movie. Yes, it's stylistically shot. Yes, it's got some great actors. But it depicts such an ugly and hopeless world, so unpleasant and seemingly pointless.
What an ugly bit of gang-angst celluloid, full of bullies and beat-em-ups. Maggie Cheung shows up in a surgical mask at her cousin Andy Lau's dump in Hong Kong. She stops chain-smoking long enough to tell him she's there to see a doctor about a lung problem. Okay, so she isn't chain-smoking, but she does smoke. It's the men who truly bogart up a fog throughout.
Andy Lau slowly falls in love with his cousin, which is reciprocated, but his hot-headed younger brother Jackie Cheung Hok-yau is forever running afoul of the gangs and needs constant saving. This state of affairs persists from start to end and suffices for the plot.
Maggie Cheung is incredibly young in this film. While her porcelain Valentine-heart of a face is in full evidence, she hasn't developed any features yet -- no eyes, nose or mouth, just a wonderful canvas of possibility. Andy Lau is equally young, and while his canvas does have a full set of features, it still lacks stretcher bars. As for Jacky Cheung Hok-yau, he's his usual bulbous self. Every part of his face is bulbous in an unfinished way.
The story unfolds in a very hot Hong Kong. Because this is a Wong Kar Wai movie, the women sweat whereas the men glow. There are so many shots of neon-lit guy-dives full of menace, with tough guys sneering with their smokes. Okay, maybe I just imagined the neon, but you know what I'm talking about. Maggie Cheung has very little to do other than languish and try to sprout features.
There's not much more to say about the movie. Yes, it's stylistically shot. Yes, it's got some great actors. But it depicts such an ugly and hopeless world, so unpleasant and seemingly pointless.
I'm nobody's pony.
