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Happy Together

Happy Together

List Price: $29.95
Your Price: $26.96
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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: great great love story
Review: i agree with the french guy, but let me tell you, is a great movie with greats settings and very good actors, a lot off drama and passion. But Buenos Aires is not at all "no man's land" is a place where you can also find love! like the guy in the movie

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Surprisingly inspiring
Review: I am never a Wong Kar-wai fan. He is obsessed with the topics of depression and self-destruction in all his works, and he did not spare this one. Yet surprisingly, "Happy together" turns out to be tender, beautiful, some how uplifting and even funny from time to time.

The story puts the two characters into a situation many people (more or less) have been through: a foreign land half globe away from home, a relationship that couldn't be fixed and couldn't be given up. You can either sink or climb out. Along the way, when the love and friendship are all gone, one still gets to hold on and move on. The hope relies on one's ability to make decision and take control, whether the result is good or not, doesn't really matter.

A lot of people mentioned the cinematography, I think the music is equally good. I now watch the video just to enjoy the rhythm of the music.

Tony Leung did a super job playing Lai Yiu-Fai. He was reluctant to play the role at first but co-star Leslie Cheung talked him into it. Leslie Cheung used to be a super singer, his albums once dominated the HK music market. Later he shifted his career to acting, taking some very challenging roles many actors dared not to touch. Few have the gut and the talent to do so.

It is not a movie maker's obligation to inspire people in a movie, but an inspiring art work is hard to be forgotten.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: watch
Review: I have no idea how this film worked its magic. It makes use of all sorts of cinematographic techniques that I wouldn't dare to guess at, but the result is at once startling and fluid, and of the Wong Kar-Wai films I've seen, it serves the story best here, fleshing out a skeletal script, so that everything is vibrant with new textures and colors and the viewer's encounter with Buenos Aires as dizzying as it must seem to the lovers.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: do nothing until you watch this film!
Review: I saw this film 10 months ago and it's haunted me ever since. The depths of self-loathing, self-destruction . . . The bleak emotional terrain is rendered so powerfully, and yet so gently. Of course the aesthetics are tremendous and this alone demands a viewing. But the languorous themes of love-dementia, love-saturation, love-lack are the things that come back to me through the months. This film is a petroleum rainbow, an iridescent wasteland -- and yet uplifting! Imparts upon you the heaviest exaltation imaginable. Watch it alone in a dark room. Then sit for a few hours, still dark, static or blue screen, and contemplate it.

Johns Hopkins Arts & Sciences Student.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Tony Leung and Leslie Cheung are deeply penetrating!
Review: I saw this movie many years ago(97) at the same time when Tony Leung's girlfriend(Carina Lau) who is my #1 favorite actress also starred in the heavy-duty melodramatic lesbian romance film called Intimates(Self-combed). It was such a treat to see Leung and Lau indulging themselves into two movies that was controversial and a taboo subject. I was very moved by Happy together, but I enjoyed Intimates more, because it was more elaborate and it was absolutely Lau's most powerful performance of her career, way better than Days of Being Wild, I Am Sorry, Infernal Affairs 2. Anyways, let me get back to Happy Together.
Tony and Leslie's characters might have been happy together before, but they had no more happiness in the movie. Perhaps even going to Argentina for exile won't make things back to the way they were. There's a few irreconcilable differences between the two. Tony is hard working, down-to-earth and monogamous. Leslie is lazy, rebelious, and sexually promiscuous. They broke up, and inevitably, Leslie would say:" Let's start over again." But Tony has lost his faith in Leslie, and just wants to move on.
Then Leslie became self-destructive and sells his body for a living. It was very emtionally impacting to see Leslie cry his heart out when he realized that Tony is out of his life. Tony drove himself to the waterfall and stared at it while he's thinking about Leslie. It was visually stunning. Tony's co-worker played by Chang Chen was secretly in love with him, but Tony didn't have room in his heart for anyone. He decided to abandon Leslie and return to Hong Kong.
The love scene was pretty convincing. I guessed Leslie must have helped Tony to get into character. Both of them gave "career best" performances, but Tony has more screen time.
The cinematography, soundtrack, art direction, and WKW's direction are perfect. You don't have to be gay to enjoy this film, because it's trully beautiful!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: DVD is Disappointing, Not Movie.
Review: I think movie review must be divded into Media and Movie itself, especially DVD. DVD has many features like chapter search, subtitle, etc. And quality of screen vary. In this point, this DVD is VVVEEERY BBBADDD. No understanding of Chinese Language. No Understanding of Director. Most of all its screen quality is worse than back-up VHS tape.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: simply breathtaking
Review: I was fortunate enough to see this movie on the big screen when it came through Austin a few years ago, and if you have the chance to view it as such, do it. The filming and script both hold within them a subtle beauty that builds and at times just hits you flat. This may sound like jive talk but there are moments in the movie where I lose my breath. The theme of the movie sits in that odd limbo where one relationship ends and another one begins. As a warning, this movie is not for those who want every scene packed with more drama than a drag queen contest. The movie's focus is instead on those quite moments that lie inbetween, and the gritty realism of the script only adds to the film's odd beauty. A great film for those looking for more than cheap shots at our hearts and minds.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Enchanting movie that is a fine story and visual feast.
Review: I was lucky enough to watch this in Hong Kong right after it's release date. The 95% Cantonese audience loved it but interestingly laughed at very inappropriate times. I am sure that when I laughed they thought I was an idiot. Anyway, the visuals are stunning and I watch the video often just to enjoy the movement and color. I also listen to the soundtrack often as it is chock-full of tango both bad and good. The Frank Zappa tracks are also entertaining. If you get a chance ,read any of several of the directors different explantations of the movie. His reason for making it was apparently and paradoxically (filmed mostly in Argentina) spurred on by the turnover of Hong Kong.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Yet another rave
Review: I was not at all familiar with any of the films of Wong Kar-wai prior to seeing the video of "Happy Together". The film was a wonderful surprise ... it completely bowled me over! I was engrossed in the story of the gay Chinese couple trapped in a doomed relationship halfway around the world from their home. Add the first-rate acting, direction and cinematography, and you have one hell of an entertaining film. There is nothing that I can add to the more knowledgeable reviews below. But I can say that it is always satisfying to recommend a great film to your friends ... "Happy Together" is one of those films.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: impressive movie
Review: I watched this movie because i watched chucking express and liked it. This movie , althought still contains some elements in chucking express, is really fresh. The black-white turns color screen helps to conveys the surroundings. Its like watching a 'moving'photographs....tony and leslie did a really good job. -watch it and just realize how life really is


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