To begin with, I must admit I am not a big fan of Wong Kar-Wai's directing style, though I know that his work has been controversial both in Hong Kong and abroad and has won him numerous prestigious awards.

His latest installment is set in Hong Kong in the early 1960's. Tony Leung Chiu-Wai plays newspaper editor Chow Mo-Wan and Maggie Cheung Man-Yuk plays Su Li-Zhen, a secretary at a shipping company. Both are married, and by coincidence both move into a crowded building on the same day. Their spouses are seldom home and the audience (and the two leads)
soon realize the absentee spouses are having an affair. In the process of trying to cope with this devastating revelation and pondering over how they should react, they find support, shared interests and even a worthy companion in each other. Despite their growing love for each other, however, they feel obliged to suppress their feelings which they consider
inappropriate (as would many people brought up in Hong Kong and China in those days), Su more so than Chow. In the end they go their separate ways and their love for each other is never fulfilled.

Both Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung are highly respected actors in the HK film industry, and they live up to expectations in their respective performances. The range of emotions experienced by the characters are conveyed effectively, even in scenes where not a word is spoken. Without being unduly dramatic, Leung and Cheung bring their characters to life as believable, regular people who happen to fall in love in the wrong social climate and under unfavourable circumstances. Despite strong
performances from both leads, however, I don't believe them to be the best from either one of these veteran actors with extensive experience in film.

The retro-Hong Kong 60's-style of scenery and costumes are recreated meticulously and deserve praise. Maggie Cheung looks decidedly beautiful in tight-fitting traditional Chinese dresses or "qipao's". Director Wong Kar-Wai incorporates many shots of the main characters silently and pensively reflecting on their feelings and experiences against the background music
which consists mainly of a few melodies that are repeated over and over. We never really see Chow and Su's spouses; we see only their backs or hear them talking off-camera to the leads. There are also many slowly-moving or still shots of the surroundings in which the characters find themselves. Overall I find the pace of this film to be like that of its camera shots,
painfully slow and tending to drag. I suppose one could say I don't know how to appreciate Wong Kar-Wai's unique filming style. *Sigh*