Well procrastination might have paid off again. Seeing numerous DVD imports of this I decided to wait it out. I wanted to see this on the big screen for two reasons. One, it seemed like a BIG film. Two, I've never seen a Wong film in a theater, and was unaware of when my next opportunity might be. A third reason arose but I only realized it during the opening of the film. If I saw this in the theater I would be forced to pay more attention to it than I could at home.

Like most people sifting through this film I was a little baffled by the intro. Not to despair I figured I would let the story sort itself out. I knew many movies that started confusing as hell and wound up making perfect sense eventually. 2046 settled into some sort of order, but the list of unanswered questions for myself is still rather long. I can start with a basic question, what the hell was the returning from 2046 about, and what was all that crap about in the future, and when does the film really take place?

Most of this doesn't matter though. The real thrust of the story is in the individual relationships. These encounters represent traditional Wong quite well. He even keeps his cast relatively similar to make it feel more familiar. Tony Leung I believe has been in every film of Wong's that I've seen, so not surprised to see him here. I'll always look at him a little oddly because the first film of his I'd seen was Happy Together, and this passionate lover was directing his attentions to the same sex. He does a remarkable job here. He let's us in just enough to grasp what he's feeling, but not enough to be completely satisfied. We don't really learn more about him than he knows. In this story he seems to be finding out about himself, but despite his appearance we do sense his emptiness.

Visually it was amazing, but I've come to expect that from this director. The ending and the whole android subplot made little sense to me. I found it comical when titles kept saying "1 hour later", "10 hours later", or "100 hours later". I'm not sure if we were supposed to laugh, but I was reminded of Un Chien Andalou, when suddenly a title says "16 Years Ago" and the shot resumes. I believe the point was that time is irrelevant. Despite showing us four different Christmas Eve's, our character was the same, and it wouldn't have mattered if 1969 was 1966 or 1967. I guess the same could go for that future train ride where we never find out how long the trip takes. It doesn't matter where we're going, only matters what happens on the way there I suppose.