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Wong Kar-wai made the
decision to shot Happy Together in Argentina because it was the exact opposite of
Hong Kong. At this time, he wanted to feel as far as possible of the 1997 event and of
everything dealing with the handover of Hong Kong to Mainland China. |
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Context
Wong Kar-wai is a big fan of South American literature (see Ashes Of Time). He is particularly influenced by Manuel Puig's 'Buenos
Aires Affair', a title he kept as the Happy Together's production title. He then
thought he knew Argentina through Puig's books. Obviously, as soon as he landed there he
found another Argentina.
Problems piled up. Wong Kar-wai and his team reached
Argentina in winter and had to adapt to the local weather. Wong Kar-wai was sure before
boarding that the shooting wouldn't last more than 6 weeks. It actually last twice as much
and was punctuated with lengthy resting periods. The HK director had to deal with various
production and film equipment companies (whose prices have risen since the shooting of Evita
and 7 years in Tibet locally), and the local police.
After a month, nothing was shot. Wong Kar-wai decided then
to use the good old HK method, the DIY technique, i.e. to shoot without any authorisation.
In addition, one of the male leads Leslie Cheung got sick
and had to fly back to HK for concert commitments.
Another difficulties was to persuade a local crew, used to
work 9 hours a day, 5 days a week, to switch to the HK pace, that is to say 18 hours a
days, 7 days a week!
After so much trouble, Wong Kar-wai could relax a bit
during postproduction because he had a 4-month delay before delivering the goods at the
1998 Cannes International Film Festival.
Two year before, in 1996, a nosy Leslie Cheung revealed at Cannes that Wong Kar-wai's next
film to be (Happy Together) was made after a request from one of the most
prestigious film festivals in the world!
  
Editing
After a first cut, the film was still 3 hours long. Wong Kar-wai decided to
evict three female roles (one of them is famous local singer Shirley Kwan) and to
concentrate on the man's story. He then wanted (to avoid digression and to show a
relationship between two men. He wished to come back to simplicity in 90 minutes, unlike
in his first feature film As Tears Go By that he judged far
too complicated.
Let's note that Happy Together is visually very
different from Fallen Angels or Chungking Express. Wong Kar-wai has chosen a more basic
approach of the photography. The camera hand-held technique is widely used here. He also
has chosen to produce a more traditional linear narration. Technically it's a new
challenge as well since the soundtrack is in Dolby Surround, a pretty rare thing in HK
productions at that time.
Feelings
Wong Kar-wai and Chris Doyle don't describe Happy Together as a gay
movie. It's more like a film talking about people feelings.
"I always thought that it was a love story between two characters" stated
Chris Doyle at the time. This theme of relationship is indeed at the heart of the Wong
Kar-wai's œuvre.
Two men are in pain. Wong Kar-wai has some kind of sympathy
for Ho Po Wing (Leslie Cheung) who is the loser in the whole thing. He doesn't have this
resistance to pain like Lai Yu Fai (Tony Leung Chiu-wai).
  
At the end of the day, the end result still evokes the
former crown colony HK. Tony Leung's character travels to Argentina (Buenos Aires,
Patagonia, Mendoza), then goes to Taipei, Taiwan and finally comes back to HK. But Wong
Kar-wai shot the various countries as if they were like Hong Kong. He shot the same rooms,
the same kitchen and the same little dark roads. He realises that he can only shot the HK
urban structure, as he knows the various areas by heart, e.g. Wanchai, Central, Tsim Sha
Tsui or Kowlooon.
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A decent reception
Wong Kar-wai won the Best direction 'Palme' at Cannes in May 1997, two
months before the handover. He preferred this awards to the 'Palme d'or' or Best movie
Award, because it still let him some kind of freedom (more offers, more investments and
interesting propositions…) and less pressures to carry on shooting movies. Critics
won't wait so eagerly for the following film as well.
However, there's been a real polemic in HK about Wong
Kar-wai, which has begun with Days Of Being wild and Ashes of
Time. He is sometimes misunderstood as someone who don't make very commercial nor
accessible films but still wins a lot of awards and is well respected all over the world.
Wong Kar-wai keeps receiving many propositions from all over the world and even wins
awards at various international film festivals!
  
In Korea, Happy Together was banished when it came
out in the rest of the world, maybe because it dealt with a too hot topic…
As a conclusion, Wong Kar-wai has involuntarily included a
political content to the movie. With Ho Po Wing recurrent sentence "let's start all
over again…", a reference to HK people who have been anxiously waiting for 1997
and who have doubts concerning their future.
In the end, the important 1997 event that Wong Kar-wai
tried so hard to escape has may be caught him up
Written by
Thomas in 1999, freely translated an updated in April 2003.
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CREDITS
HONGKONG/1997
 Script & direction : Wong
Kar-wai. Producer : Wong Kar-wai (Jet Tone). Executive
Producer : Chan Ye-cheng. Photography : Christopher
Doyle. Art Director : William Chang Suk-ping. Editing : William
Chang Suk-ping, Wong Ming-lam. Music : Danny Cheung, Astor
Piazolla, Franck Zappa. Starring : Tony Leung
Chiu-wai (Lai Yu-fai), Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing (Ho Po-wing), Chang Chen.
Running Time : 93 min. BO in HK : 1997, 20th out of 98
(1st: Mr. Nice Guy). Showed 48 days (30/05/97 - 16/07/97). Gross : HK$ 8,600,141
(best local gross : HK$ 45,420,457).
Awards : Best direction
'Palme' at the 50th Cannes film festival (mai 1998). Best Actor Award to Tony Leung at the
1997 HK Film Awards. Best Actor Award to Tony Leung and Best Cinematography Award (Chris
Doyle) at the 3rd Golden Bauhinia awards.
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