Friday Feb 22, 2008 (8pm)
In Happy Together, Wong Kar-Wai melds his trademarks — wistful, wait-and-see characters; a sublime, on-repeat soundtrack; and Christopher Doyle's rapturous cinematography — into a masterwork about home and heartbreak (two subjects sometimes intertwined). Such is the state for two gay expats living in Buenos Aires (Tony Leung and Leslie Cheung), whose reckless love and paranoia frame the film's beleaguered episodes. Within the lovers' convincing chemistry, Cheung is the unsettled element that causes Leung to long for his home in Hong Kong — itself set to return to Chinese hands. Like the descent of Iguazu Falls, where the film begins and ends, Wong's translation of love's devouring vacuum explores emotional geography with free-fall beauty and abandon.
– Jason Jude Chan