Wong Kar Wai's Days of Being Wild

Today I watched Days of Being Wild, a film by Hong Kong director Wong Kar Wai, who did the brilliant movies, Chungking Express and In the Mood For Love. Days was an early Wong Kar-Wai film, and it wasn't as strong as his later output. However, that doesn't make it a bad movie.

The movie feels very New Wave inspired. There's not much story, and a lot of what happens is just people sitting around talking about stuff. We basically see York living his life, and what happens to him. That forms the main basis of the movie. However, there are other characters on the peripherary. Maggie Cheung appears as a woman he dumps, then she goes on to meet up with a police officer. Her encounter with the police officer was my favorite chunk of the film, it felt a lot like In the Mood for Love. The movie looks beautiful. The use of color is extraordinary, and there were a number of shots that just jumped out to me as aesthetically perfect, and a great use of framing to tell the story.

If there are any problems, it's in the lack of focus. The movie kind of meanders along, and I wasn't really sure where it was going. Also, even though it looks great, 60s Hong Kong looks even better in In the Mood For Love, and in comparing the two, Days suffers.

Related Posts
Days of Being Wild: In Depth (4/28/2005)
Ashes of Time (4/20/2005)
Wong Kar-Wai Day (8/3/2005)