Chun gwong cha sit (1997)

Director:

Kar Wai Wong

Writer:

Kar Wai Wong (writer)

Release Date:

29 April 1997 (Italy)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Plot:

Yiu-Fai and Po-Wing arrive in Argentina from Hong Kong and take to the road for a holiday. Something is wrong and their relationship goes adrift...

Plot Keywords:

Tango | Argentina | Cigarette | Gay Asian | Waterfall

Awards:

6 wins & 12 nominations

Cast

Leslie Cheung	...	Ho Po-wing
Tony Leung Chiu Wai	...	Lai Yiu-fai
Chen Chang	...	Chang
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Gregory Dayton	...	Lover
Shirley Kwan	...	(scenes cut)

Directed by
Kar Wai Wong

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Kar Wai Wong		writer

Produced by
Ye-cheng Chan	....	producer
Kar Wai Wong	....	executive producer

Original Music by
Danny Chung

Cinematography by
Christopher Doyle

Film Editing by
William Chang
Ming Lam Wong

Production Design by
William Chang

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Johnnie Kong	....	assistant director (as Johnny Kwong)

Sound Department
Chi-tat Leung	....	sound
Du-Che Tu	....	sound

Special Effects by
Tom Cundom	....	special effects

Music Department
Danny Chung	....	music supervisor

Other crew
Ignacio Barbe	....	location manager
Juan Carlos Copes	....	choreographer

Production Companies

• Block 2 Pictures
• Jet Tone Production
• Prénom H Co. Ltd.
• Seowoo Film Company

Distributors

• Golden Harvest Company (1997) (Hong Kong) (theatrical)
• Artificial Eye (1998) (UK) (theatrical) (subtitled)
• Lucky Red (1998) (Italy) (theatrical)
• Artificial Eye (2003) (UK) (DVD)
• Kino Video (2003) (USA) (DVD)
• Kinowelt Home Entertainment (2005) (Germany) (DVD)
• Artistas Argentinos Asociados (AAA) (????) (Argentina) (theatrical)
• Aska Film Distribution (????) (Canada) (theatrical) (subtitled)
• Atalanta Filmes (????) (Portugal) (theatrical)
• Cinemien (1997) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• JMM Invest (????) (Spain) (theatrical)
• Kino International (????) (USA) (theatrical) (subtitled)
• Wanda Distribución Cinematográfica de Films S.A. (????) (Spain) (theatrical)
• Argentina Video Home (????) (Argentina) (VHS)
• Arthaus (????) (Norway) (VHS)
• Cult Filmes (????) (Brazil) (VHS)
• Homescreen (1997) (Netherlands) (video)
• Lume Filmes (2007) (Brazil) (DVD)
• Madman Entertainment (2004) (Australia) (DVD)
• Madman Entertainment (2004) (New Zealand) (DVD)

Special Effects

• Optical Art (titles and opticals)

Also Known As:

Happy Together (Hong Kong: English title) (USA)
Buenos Aires Affair (International: English title)
Chun guang zha xie (Hong Kong: Mandarin title)
Happy
Felizes Juntos (Brazil) (Portugal) [pt]
Édes2kettes (Hungary) [hu]
Buenos Aires (Japan: English title) [en]
Eftyhismenoi mazi (Greece) [el]
Glücklich vereint (Germany) (TV title) [de]
Happy Together (Poland) [pl]
Happy Together (France) [fr]
Happy Together (Germany) [de]
Happy Together (Sweden) [sv]
Happy Together (Spain) [es]
Happy together - Viimeinen tango Buenos Airesissa (Finland) [fi]
Mutlu beraberlik (Turkey: Turkish title) [tr]

Runtime:

96 min

Country:

Hong Kong

Language:

Mandarin | Cantonese | Spanish

Color:

Black and White | Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) | Canada:AA (Ontario) | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:PA (Manitoba) | Netherlands:12 | Iceland:12 | Italy:VM18 | New Zealand:R18 | France:U | Philippines:R-18 | Argentina:16 | Australia:M | Chile:18 | Finland:K-16 | Germany:12 | Hong Kong:III | Norway:15 | Portugal:M/16 | Singapore:(Banned) (original rating) | Singapore:R(A) (re-rating on appeal) | South Korea:(Banned) (original rating) | South Korea:18 (re-rating) (cut) | Spain:18 | UK:15

Filming Locations:

Buenos Aires, Federal District, Argentina

Company:

Block 2 Pictures

Trivia:

Tony Leung Chiu Wai agreed to do the film on the basis of a fake script and only learned of the requirement of doing a gay sex scene after arriving in Argentina for filming.

Goofs:

Continuity: Before Fai push starts the old car, the engine has already started while it is standing still.

Quotes:

Lai Yiu-fai: Turns out that lonely people are all the same.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Film Geek (2005)

Soundtrack:

Happy Together

A showcase that will generate strong emotions either way.

I first saw this film in its initial theatrical release in 1997. I sat by myself in a packed theater and when it was over, I just kept sitting there waiting for everyone to file out. I was rocked emotionally big time from what I had seen. I needed to recover...keep my emotion in check...keep it from being a public display. Clearly, there has never been another director who has communicated to me on a more emotional level than Wong Kar-Wai. Vittorio De Sica is the only other director whom I can think of that comes even close. However, not everyone shared in my rapture with the film as evidenced by my experience years later when I tried to show some folks the film on video. Either they couldn't get by the opening sequence of the "shockingly ribald" sex scene or past the first thiry minutes of "constant bickering."

The film's strengths are derived from its tremendous sense of mood and atmosphere. I found Doyle's camerawork to be lyrical and elegiac. He utilizes color, monochrome, shades of brown and blue to maximum effect. Its as if he is able to visualize the tone and mood which are only able to be described perfectly with words. This is quite frankly a brilliant achievement. How about the acting? Leslie Cheung and Tony Leung, two of Hong Kong's finest and bravest actors, hold nothing back in this film. They literally strip themselves bare right down to their spiritual core and lay their vulnerabilities on the table for the whole world to see. They don't so much as act their roles as they more or less live them. This is the career best ever performance from Cheung. Just look at his eyes as he turns around to look at the fading Leung as Cheung is being driven off by his new found "friends." Those eyes conveyed sadness, apathy, self-pity, and jealousy...all in a single glance!

Ultimately, the film is about the transience of physical passion, possessive love, loneliness, as well as about being trapped in our daily existence. These characters are trapped in Buenos Aires, far away from their home in Hong Kong. They went there to get away and start over but left to their own devices, they have progressed no further than the starting point. Iguazu falls would have been a nice destination(level) point, but sadly, not many of us get to reach that "level" (both literally and figuratively) with our fellow mankind in our lifetime. In the end, we mostly cry away our tears as we are forced to look at our own failures. Lai couldn't cry away his sorrow and pain with Chang at the lighthouse, but he may have gotten some redemption at the Iguazu falls.

This is a beautiful and at the same time painful treatise on man's longing to be loved, protected, and secure as well as on man's desire to be free from himself and his own devices, and ultimately on man's alienation from the world which he lives in. While "Happy Together" is technically not quite on par with Wong's "Chungking Express", it is philosophically as deep as his "Ashes of Time", and is on a similar emotional playing field with his "In the Mood For Love."