Don't worry PE...I own In the Mood for Love. Though I think it didn't have so much continueation, since everything Kar Wai worked to build up as far as Love's personalities is completely scrapped from the onset here. 2046 is meant to be much more of an allegory, while Love was really about two distinct people and the location in which they lived. It *felt* alot more tangable. 2046 went off on its own thing. I have no qualms with the premesis...a writer who overseas alot in the romm next to him, dabbles in all the affairs of that room, and ends up writing semi-autobiographical newspaper stories about it. My problem just came with the fact I'm not sure if it worked at all. I certainly lost my patience at times...and other times I felt what could have been sumptious cinematography just became cliche, monotonous and dragged on.

Hmmmmmm?

I agree with everything you said. I know the film was suppose to reflect on how Leung can never forget his relationship with Maggie Chueng in ITMFL, but I feel that the film itself was quite unnecessary. I did like the relationship between Faye Wong and Leung though. While I didn't enjoy the film very much, the whole cast is great. (I was especially impressed with Ziyi, and if I remember correctly, Gong Li didn't have much screentime...)

A little help please? I'm half way through the review, but I'm having trouble with Wong Kar Wai's name. It comes up often enough that I don't want to mention it in full each time, just his last name. Is it Wai, or Kar Wai (hyphenated or double name)? Right now I'm going with Kar Wai because I know the first name gets moved but the order of those two has been preserved, but I want to make sure I'm doing this right. Anyone?


Grazie Mille

I think Wong is his last name.

In Chinese cultures, family name comes first usually.

Wong is a very typical last name.

IMDB (I think) Americanizes it: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0939182/

Wikipedia uses "Wong" when they cut out the rest of his name.

They also use it as Wong Kar-wai.

I know. But I thought it was Americanized before, and that imdb changed it around. Look at Li Gong, and Ziyi Zhang. I think they're actually trying to preserve the authentic name, that's where I got that Wong was actually his first name. I always used to say Wong Kar Wai, and now on imdb, etc it shows up as Kar Wai Wong. For that reason I'm assuming Kar Wai is his last name, and not just Wai, because other wise it would be Wai Wong Kar. Uh...I think?

edit** Uh, maybe I knew the other way (without knowing it) and these are all the American versions?

I do this every day because I work with people in China. It's tough because they sometimes themselves switch it around to fit in (and adopt Western first names). But not everyone. My coworker is native Malaysian and sometimes he can't even figure it out!

His last name is Wong though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wong_Kar_Wai

Zhang Ziyi is correct. Ziyi Zhang is American. Of course, her popularity comes from Chinese films that broke out in the US, so they never changed the format.

And Gong Li is correct (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gong_Li), Gong is her surname.

It's tough, there is no standard, but at least in my business communications, the Chinese people seem very forgiving as long as you make the effort to address the name properly.

Thanks you so much. I would have felt like aweful posting it with the names all wrong, so I owe you one.

I guess I've been saying the americanized version, Zhang Ziyi, and the non anglosized version, Gong Li, all along. I'm starting to confuse even myself...

I'm going to have to rent this. If only for that imagery Wow