As Tears Go By



I think this 1988 film was Wong Kar Wai’s biggest hit as well as the directorial debut for Hong Kong art film darling. It’s very much a movie of its time. I generally like Wong’s movies, but I found As Tears Go By to be very unsatisfying.


"I lost my phone number. Can I have yours?"

Wah (Andy Lau) is a street thug in a Hong Kong gang. He doesn’t seem to do much except clean up after his incompetent brother Fly (Jackie Cheung), but eventually we find out Wah used to be a hitman back in his younger days. Wah’s “cousin” Ngor (Maggie Cheung) comes to stay with him for a couple days to be near a hospital where she is being treated for some mysterious lung ailment. As Fly gets into more and more trouble, Wah and Ngor fall in love.


Wow, who knew that one actually worked?

For me the highlight of the film was the scene where Wah and Ngor finally get together, running down a street to make out in a phone booth while a Chinese cover of “Take My Breath Away” plays on the soundtrack. It’s a surprisingly hot scene, maybe because Andy Lau and Maggie Cheung have good chemistry, and maybe because Wong is a master of portraying romantic yearning. Unhappily, the romance is a small subplot of the movie. Soon Ngor is shuffled off to an island to recover from the croup, and the two brothers yell at each about love and responsibility until the predictably bloody climax. When the movie was made overheated gangster melodramas were all the rage, so I guess it’s obvious why Wong cut his teeth by making one, but luckily most of his subsequent movies would concentrate on romance instead of fighting.

Posted: Thu - October 27, 2005 at      

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