Amazon.com video review:
The expressionistic, stylized visual brilliance (courtesy of
Australian cinematographer Christopher Doyle) of Happy Together is
so
breathtaking and enveloping it nearly detracts from this startling, queasy,
despairing glimpse at a gay relationship gone amok. Director Wong Kar-Wai
(Chungking Express, Fallen Angels) won the Best Director
Prize at Cannes
in 1997--surprising many--but on viewing the film it's easy to see why. The
subject
matter may not be the easiest to swallow--any relationship on the rocks
sometimes gets dirty and pathetically disturbing--but there is a
universality to Happy Together that rings true and real and less
like an
edition of The Honeymooners than isolation tinged with the embarrassment
of
intimacy. Ho (Leslie Cheung) and Lai (Tony Leung) have left Hong Kong for
Buenos Aires. The journey is another in Ho's attempts to "start over." But
their initial optimism is short-lived, and once they become dislocated
strangers in this strange land it only further thrusts the two into
their already codependent, caretaking dark love affair. But like all crazy
love, the trip through masochistic hell--from violence to apathy--leads to
self-enlightenment, and Wong Kar-Wai's gorgeous, grasping film is true,
tricky, difficult, and emotionally wrought, aided by Hong Kong superstars
Cheung and Leung, who contribute greatly to creating a work that is
exceptional--and lump-in-throat brutal--in image, story, and performance.
--Paula Nechak
