Vote on this title
Click on a gene to vote or discover related titles.
-
Mood:
- AtmosphericContemplativeSentimentalTouchingCaptivating
-
Plot:
- PsychologicalFall in LoveLooking for LoveLove TriangleParents and ChildrenLove and RomanceMind and SoulComing of Age more...
-
Genres:
- DramaRomanceForeignMelodramaPeriod
-
Time/Period:
- 20th Century60s
-
Place:
- AsiaHong Kong
-
Praise:
- Award WinnerCritically Acclaimed
-
Style:
- Ensemble Cast
-
Attitudes:
- SeriousRealisticSlow
Does this gene fit Days of Being Wild?
Find it on:
| IMDb | |
| Rotten Tomatoes |
Days of Being Wild, 1990
Cantonese, Tagalog, English, Mandarin, Filipino
Hong Kong
Profile of Days of Being Wild
Days of Being Wild can be described as contemplative, atmospheric, and sentimental. The plot revolves around looking for love, a love triangle, and psychological motives. The main genres are drama, foreign, and romance. In terms of style, Days of Being Wild is a melodrama and stars an ensemble cast. In approach, it is serious and realistic. The storytelling is slow paced. Days of Being Wild is located in Hong Kong. It takes place in the 1960s. The movie has received attention for being an award winner and critically acclaimed.
Summary of Days of Being Wild
Days of Being Wild is the film that started it all for auteur art film director Wong Kar Wai, exhibiting many of the preoccupations and devices that would characterize his work throughout his career until the present time. The precise, almost melodic slowness of the pacing is reflective of the existential conundrum in which the characters are mired, offsetting the random, fleeting nature of the glimpses of love they are afforded. The first film in Wong's oeuvre that is a product of his happy alliance with cinematographer Christopher Doyle, it is a film of chance, the persistence and terrifying weight of time and memory, and the fortuitous accident that passes for love.
Leslie Cheung stars as Yuddy, a vain, sexually predatory orphan whose mother abandoned him with her prostitute sister when he was very young; today, he lackadaisically searches for his birth mother while living his layabout lifestyle funded by his put-upon aunt. He approaches Lai (Maggie Cheung), a snack bar clerk, who rejects him but is haunted by Yuddy's classic line that they were friends for exactly one minute on that exact date; although realizing that he will never care for her she continues to pine for him, turning for solace to a cop (Andy Lau) who duly falls in love with her. Yuddy moves on to Mimi (Carina Lau), a beautiful cabaret dancer who is ultimately unable to maintain her tough facade when she falls for Yuddy; her vulnerability draws in Yuddy's best friend (Jackie Cheung), who idolizes him and is rejected by Mimi. The soap-opera quality of this web of love serves to illustrate the uncontrollable nature of emotions and the fact that they are governed by coincidence, underscoring the rather bleak existentialism of the film. However, the humanity depicted in the actors' stunning performances, and the dreamlike nature of the sequences that effect the impression of memory, redeem the seemingly unredeemable characters.
Details
| Language: | Cantonese, Tagalog, English, Mandarin, Filipino |
| Country: | Hong Kong |
| Release date: | 13 March 1991 |
| Runtime: | 94 min |
Cast and Crew
as Yuddy
as Tide
Photos
Critics Reviews
Chicago Tribune
- |
- by: Michael Wilmington
The New York Times
- |
- by: Manohla Dargis
