As Tears Go By (1989)
Movie Info
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Cast
as Wah
as Ngor
as Fly
as Tony

as Tony

as Ah Site

as Site
Critic Reviews for As Tears Go By
All Critics (11) | Top Critics (7) | Fresh (9) | Rotten (2) | DVD (2)
Some of the editing has a giddy, overeager quality, the natural excess of a young prodigy, but when the action and the tempo align, the results are exhilarating: an early brawl in a pool hall fairly leaps off the screen.

This sounds like a fairly standard debut. But Wong smothers the story with tremendous style.
As Tears Go By doesn't measure up to Wong's later classics, such as In the Mood for Love (2000) and Chungking Express (1994), but it shows a master in the making.
Unpersuasive as drama, Tears is the first and last Wong movie touched by any feel of the obligatory.
Long before Wong Kar-wai perfected his dreamy, ennui-infused aesthetic (or got hopelessly stuck in blueberry goo), he made a name for himself with this warhorse tale of small-time hoods on the road to ruin.

Ostensibly a conventional tale of triad loyalty, As Tears Go By announced the presence of a genuine Hong Kong new wave -- as well as an ambitious cineaste.
Audience Reviews for As Tears Go By
Wong Kar Wai's Promising debut

Super Reviewer
Great first effort by Wong Kar Wai
Super Reviewer
This is Wong Kar-Wai's debut from 1988. Starring Maggie Cheung and Andy Lau. Fiited with typical 80's ambiant soundtrack and two narrtives told. Being a wong Kar Wai fan I've tried to watch all of his movies over the past couple of months, this has to be incredibly different to the others I've watched. For one thing I haven't watched A Wai film with a gangster feel to it. It was a little odd to start with but for me it did feel realistic and probably very typical to Hong Kong in the 1980's, so, Wai diffently makes a stament there. I enjoyed the hard reality of this gangster feel. I mean when watched Hollywood gangster film I don't usually feel that I can't watch what's going on on screen as it just seems very typical. What Wai does well in his debut is that the violence seems very realistic and not delibertly done in such a wy that is for Hollywood and looses the realism. Naturally there's no Chistopher Doyle's cinemtography in this film as it was his first but the cinempatography isn't bad but not great. Hand-held camera was used a lot so you felt like you were there in the film. Unfortunatly what the movie falls up upon is the love story betwwen Andy Lau's character and Maggie Cheung's. To me it does seem a bit pointless. First of alll it just doesn't seem particularly geuined, almost like a fling but perhaps it could have meant to be that what or not; I just didn't understand that bit. Some of the characters I couldn't figure out, Andy Lau had a brother then he apprently has another younger one- too confusing. Asides that, this is a good debut for the then 30 year old Wong Kar Wai you can diffently seen potential in this film. Overall worth the watch if you're a Wong Kar Wai fan, just don't expect anything outstanding as In The Mood For Love.
Super Reviewer
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