what a manic, scattered, intuitive collage this film is. Wong deserves the chutzpah award for taking a relatively simple idea (although how simple is love? not very) and stewing it in dazzling images. The women, all love interests of Tony Leung, swirl around like in a dream. As a writer myself, I think Wong captures the writers mind so perfectly. There's constant conflict in a writer's mind: between reality and the ideal world you constantly envision and refine, between personal conviction and the need to be understood and loved by others. And, most drawn out in 2046, how we deal with out objects of desire. Wong uses women, Leung's objects of desire, to project every wish, desire, hope, and fear onto. Wong's women are goddesses, ghosts, muses, partners, targets, prizes. Their emotional license seems to ripple from Leung's pen, and his austere face. And of course, the visuals are simply stunning and sumptuous; and stark, echoing the claustrophobic loneliness and desperation of the characters. Wonderful, Alive movie.
