The crazy thing about Wong Kar-wai’s international breakout is that it doesn’t really become the film people love and remember until about halfway through. Not that the opening star-crossed encounter between Brigitte Lin’s blonde-wigged moll and Takeshi Kaneshiro’s detective is forgettable—far from it. But once heartbroken Tony Leung and Faye Wong meet cute, one of the great modern cinema romances/style exercises is truly underway. -Lee Gardner
1994 Wong Kar Wai. 1.66:1 Color DCP 102 min. In Cantonese with subtitles.
