I caught Howl's Moving Castle and 2046 at the Film Festival this weekend.

The new Miyazaki is really good. It's like a bunch of his earlier films rolled into one, but wonderfully imaginative and extremely tongue in cheek. Like most Miyzaki films, it stops making sense towards the end and there's a lot that's never explained, but it didn't matter, because it's entertaining. I saw it in a packed theatre and everyone fell in love with its charm. Miyazaki is a genius at making people happy and HMC is no doubt the most good natured film I'll see all year. 

2046, on the other hand, can only be described as a disappointment. As a sequel to In The Mood For Love it's completely unnecessary -- there's not enough story to justify it as a film, especially when the arc takes Tony Leung back to where he was at the beginning of the film. Along the way there's two interesting relationships between Tong Leung and Faye Wong and Leung and Zhang Ziyi, but these are intercut with subplots that don't work. 2046 is the first time I can remember Wong Kar-Wai's style not working -- the editing doesn't work, the non-linear plot doesn't work, and most of all, the enactments of "2046" don't work. The film is cold, melancholy and depressing, which would be OK if it were moving, but it's not. It seems Wong Kar-Wai's auteur status has got the better of him with this one; it plays out like an Antonioni film, but without the intrigue. OK if you want to see beautiful Asian women, but don't expect a great story.