Jithin K Mohan "In the Mood for Love" showcased a hopeless love story, that which is lost even before its inception. "2046" portrays the hopeless attempts to overcome the repression of emotions by the repression of identity. Chow's idealized love for Su, which he lost, lead him into a state in which he can't stay true to his emotions. So he moves on without looking back only to look back at those who reminds him of his lost love, which ultimately leads to the realization that he needs to let go of the past. Chow's thoughts are further explored in the sci-fi world of his novel "2046". As each of the characters in his life is portrayed as a character in the novel, his real emotions towards them are exposed, as the writing progresses, even to him.Yearning for love is a basic human emotion that has always been a consistent theme in Wong films. Even when doing action/biography films like "The Grandmaster", the film ends up more or less about love. "2046" portrays the chaos of lost souls who are looking for love from all the wrong places and their suffering when they can't let go of the love they found or get hold of. Like every Wong film, "2046" is also at its best when the visual and musical motifs lead the viewers to feel what the characters are going through.Read full review at www.asianfilmvault.com/2017/07/2046-2004-by- wong-kar-wai.html

moviescriticnet Despite the fact that it has been nominated for Palme d' Or in Cannes Film Festival and won six local awards in Hong Kong Film Awards this overrated movie (a drama/romance and sci-fi mixture) is aesthetically perfect but completely meaningless. Kar Wai Wong, best knows for "In the Mood for Love" made this experimental two-hour movie of an original 5-hour (or so) material (thank god he didn't use all of it). The title of the film refers to the last year before the 50-year period the Chinese Government promised to let Hong Kong remain as it is (Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997). Of course this has little or nothing to do with the film (whose general idea is people searching love and their identity in a futuristic Hong Kong) which is nonsensical, completely delusional and will have you wonder whether you accidentally smoked some giant pot. Nevertheless the cinematography of the futuristic Hong Kong is so artistic and beautiful that it's worth watching just (and only) for that.Grade: C-

dwpollar 1st watched 2/20/2010 -- 7 out of 10(Dir-Wong Kar Wai): Painful yet beautiful film about lost loves and how those affected the main character played by Tony Leung. This is a strange, stylistic film about a writer and his experiences with various women in his life. He then uses those experiences to write a story set in the year 2046(which also happens to be the hotel room number where many of those experiences took place). The heroine in the story goes to this year to bring back lost memories because supposedly the memories will never be lost there. The movie bounces back and forth between the real story and the written story so it's really hard to follow and is hard to understand unless you watch the whole movie. The core is about how the main character lost a love who decided not to go with him to Singapore. He then becomes very loose and beds many women. He has a sexual relationship with a woman in room 2046 and then has a very fatherly relationship with the next inhabitant of that room. The written story ends on a sad note as does the real life situation. The character can only relate to loss. The filmmaker, Wong Kar Wai, uses a lot of visual styles to tell the story and includes music that makes it feel like a sad opera. This is one of those movies that will be hard to revisit but is a one-of-a-kind film and shouldn't be missed. If you've ever lost a love in your life -- this film will bring it to the surface and I think that is what the filmmaker intended. Well done throughout, but don't watch it alone because you won't want to be after it's over.

jnagarya-1 "Mr. Chow is seen so much in love with Bai Ling."Chow is not in love with Bai Ling. He is in love with the character in his past, as represented by Maggie Cheung, and with the same name as the Li Gong character.Bai Ling is, however, in love with Chow -- and as result ends up being where Chow has been all along: trapped in the past.And there is fairly direct hint that he's in love with Faye Wong's character -- "the happiest summer of my life"; sometimes he makes and excuse to pick her up at work to take her home, which in the instance shown she declines -- though she not with him.