living.in.technicolor

I found out about this movie when I was a freshman during some online search for gay, non-pornographic Asian cinema. It was the first time I had heard of Wong Kar-Wai or Tony Leung Chiu-Wai and the more I learned, the more I wanted to see it. It was hard to find online so on a whim, I bought a pirated copy on Ebay and watched it on my laptop.

It took me several views to appreciate the organic plot, the slow motion pans of pensiveness, the dialogue that refrains from over-explaining, the saturated colors, and the slow decay of the main relationship. In a way, I prefer that from the typical love stories of redemption and deserved love. Instead, cycles of dependency, abuse, jealousy, boredom and fear drown out moments of rekindled happiness.

At that time, I related a lot with Tony Leung’s character’s loneliness in a foreign country and his desire for a stable relationship, though I didn’t like how he try to reduce his boyfriend to an invalid. No one is actually happy together. It’s when they’re apart when they realize just how happy they were.

I’ve seen other Wong Kar-Wai movies since then. I’ve made it a point that any guy I date should be at least familiar with his work. Perhaps it is true that “lonely people are all the same” in their unhappiness but that shouldn’t stop one from missing chances to be happy, alone or with others.