"Happy Together" is a Chinese film ("Chun Gwong Cha Sit") about Lai Yiu-Fai (Tony Leung Chiu Wai) and Ho Po-Wing (Leslie Cheung), a pair of gay lovers living out the waning days of their relationship as expatriates in Buenos Aires. Hoping to renew their ailing and turbulent relationship, the pair have a pattern of abuse, followed by break-ups and reconciliations. One of their goals in Argentina is to visit the Iguazu waterfalls, which serves as a leitmotif in the movie. The movie has 5 parts. In part 1 they arrive in Argentina, argue and break up. Lai is stable and committed, whereas Ho is destructive and not monogamous. In part 2 Ho is beaten up and Lai nurses him back to health. But Lai returns to his promiscuous lifestyle. In part 3 the relationship falls apart again and Lai befriends Chang (Chen Chang), who tells Lai that his goal is to reach the lowest point in South America--a lighthouse where supposedly all sorrows can be dropped. Eventually, Chang departs Buenos Aires and continues on his journey. In part 4 Lai sinks into a depression. He changes jobs in order make more money and eventually has sexual encounters with men in bathrooms and movie theaters as a means to cope with his loneliness. On Christmas Day, he writes a long letter to his father in Hong Kong. We learn that Lai had stolen money from his father's business in order to finance the trip for himself and Ho to South America. Lai apologizes to his father, and decides to make amends. In part 5 Ho contacts Lai again, but is rejected. Lai visits the Iguazu waterfalls, then returns to Hong Kong. He visits Taipei and seeks out Chang's family's noodle shop in a market. He steals a picture of Chang as a remembrance.
Writer and director Wong Kar Wai said, "In this film, some audiences will say that the title seems to be very cynical, because it is about two persons living together, and at the end, they are just separate. But to me, happy together can apply to two persons or apply to a person and his past, and I think sometimes when a person is at peace with himself and his past, I think it is the beginning of a relationship which can be happy, and also he can be more open to more possibilities in the future with other people."
The English title is from The Turtles' 1967 song, which is covered by Danny Chung on the film's soundtrack; the Chinese title is an idiomatic expression suggesting "the exposure of something indecent." Leung and Cheung are 2 of Hong Kong's biggest movie stars. Winner of the Best Director Prize at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival, Wong Kar Wai's "Happy Together" is a cinematic balancing act, a great display of filmmaking style and a love story mixed into one film.
Writer and director Wong Kar Wai said, "In this film, some audiences will say that the title seems to be very cynical, because it is about two persons living together, and at the end, they are just separate. But to me, happy together can apply to two persons or apply to a person and his past, and I think sometimes when a person is at peace with himself and his past, I think it is the beginning of a relationship which can be happy, and also he can be more open to more possibilities in the future with other people."
The English title is from The Turtles' 1967 song, which is covered by Danny Chung on the film's soundtrack; the Chinese title is an idiomatic expression suggesting "the exposure of something indecent." Leung and Cheung are 2 of Hong Kong's biggest movie stars. Winner of the Best Director Prize at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival, Wong Kar Wai's "Happy Together" is a cinematic balancing act, a great display of filmmaking style and a love story mixed into one film.
