A dark moody period piece about unrequited love.
Days of Being Wild (1990)
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Reviews Counted:29
Fresh:26
Rotten:3
Average Rating:7.7/10
Theatrical Release:Nov 19, 2004 Limited
Box Office: $18,090
Synopsis: 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... 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. [More]
Starring: Leslie Cheung, Andy Lau, Maggie Cheung, Jacky Cheung
Starring: Leslie Cheung, Andy Lau, Maggie Cheung, Jacky Cheung, Alex Man, Carina Lau, Tony Leung Chiu-Wai
Director: Kar-Wai Wong
Director: Kar-Wai Wong
Studio: Kino International
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Reviews for Days of Being Wild
Twelve years after first seeing Days of Being Wild, I’m finally developing some fondness for it.
The ‘60s were a time of alienation and sadness, which I suppose Wong was trying to reflect here. But he’s chosen characters so monumentally self-destructive that it’s difficult to care about them.
Wong has a reputation for slow-moving mood pieces in which very little happens, but that's not the case here.
Wong's always-striking visual style uses floating, neon colors and extreme angles to emphasize disconnected souls.
Needless to say a must-see for Wongcolytes, Days of Being Wild is also an excellent entry point for people who haven't yet caught this most exotic and habit-forming of cinematic bugs.
Every shot is perfectly composed and compelling, with light and shadow manipulated to maximum effect.
It now seems like a promising apprentice work, almost a blueprint for the writer-director's most acclaimed and famous film, In the Mood for Love.
There are images in Days that can make your heart stop for no other reason than that they're perfect.
The languorous atmosphere of longing, disconnection and emotional isolation is hypnotic.
It may have been released in the olden days of 1991, but Wong Kar-Wai's Days of Being Wild remains pulsatingly contemporary.
Feels exciting, in part, because you are watching an auteur lay the groundwork -- with an assortment of clocks, watches and meticulously detailed moments -- for ideas and moods he will obsessively follow in later films.
In many ways, Days of Being Wild anticipated the overall pattern of its writer-director- auteur's haunting career.
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 15% 15% | The Ugly Truth |
| 98% 98% | Up |
| 36% 36% | G.I. Joe: The Rise of … |
| 52% 52% | The Taking of Pelham 1… |
| 45% 45% | Ice Age: Dawn of the D… |
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 36% 36% | Angels & Demons |
| 68% 68% | Funny People |
| 25% 25% | Four Christmases |
| 45% 45% | Shorts |
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