Last summer I wrote, "
2046 in its punch-drunk highs and disappointing lows serves to retroactively paint
In the Mood for Love in a glowing light, actually improving the memory of its poetic romance." Indeed, watching
In the Mood for Love again, this sentiment rang ever more true.
2046, Wong Kar-Wai's sorta-sequel, is a more overtly passionate, punch-drunk film, dizzying as it spans years and displays its character's imaginative approaches to remembering the quiet love affair which
In the Mood presents. When reviewing
2046, I commented that
In the Mood was the better film: more subtle, richer in its connotations. But it now seems to me that, while this may be true,
2046 is the film I prefer; or rather, I like the films more in conjunction with one another than separately. The romance seen onscreen in
In the Mood is poignant, often sweet, and evocatively moody but its power becomes more apparent (to me at least, on this particular viewing) nearer the end of the movie, when the lovers part, and even more so in the follow-up, in which Tony Leung's character struggles to remember and re-connect with his memory, filtered now through the scrim of frustrated nostalgia and yearning romanticism. Or maybe I'm just a sucker for lost causes.
