Tuesday, August 21, 2007

2046


One night traveling, I couldn't sleep -- and lucked across 2046, Wong Kar Wai's perfectly spacey pre-dawn film. It's beautifully shot with luxurious colors. It's "about" a writer (played by Tony Leung Chieu Wai, who has the aura of Clark Gable, complete with Rhett Butler moustache) and his memory, suffused with imagination. It's about his relationships, and about his observations, mostly set in the 1960s.

What exactly is 2046? It's a room number in the Oriental Hotel. It's also the year in which one of this writer's science fiction stories is set. And it's a train number. Sound a bit strange? It is -- but it's also cool, with lots of interaction between the writer and several pretty women (played by Maggie Cheung, Gong Li, Faye Wong, Carina Lau, and Zhang Ziyi). It reminds me a little of Philip K. Dick, of Marcel Proust, and of Last Year at Marienbad (1961), only in rich color.


I shudder to think of the real 2046. 2007 is close enough for now. Frankly, 1946 doesn't sound that long ago in the grand scheme of things.


Today’s Rune: The Mystery Rune.

Birthdays: Jean-Baptiste Greuze, Banastre Tarleton, Jules Michelet, Aubrey Beardsley, Emiliano Mercado del Toro, Count Basie, Wilt Chamberlain, Robert Stone, Peter Weir, Joe Strummer (b. John Graham Mellor), Kim Cattrall, Carrie-Anne Moss, Alizée Jacotey.

Joi gin!

2 comments:

the walking man said...

Uhhhh Erik what do you do, haunt vintage movie stores? while you were traveling you found this...most people would find like moccasins or beaded something or other. You always come up with these obscure movies and things. You must be a a man with eyes of an eagle?

Peace

mark

Charles Gramlich said...

Sounds interesting. I've certainly never heard of it.