Days of Being Wild - A True Timeless Classic (2)

Days of Being Wild 阿飛正傳

Director: Wong Kar-wai

Cast: Leslie Cheung, Carina Lau, Rebecca Pan, Maggie Cheung

Rating: 90/100

Remembering and forgetting is not only about the love stories and feelings of the characters, but also the history of the city and self identity. The 1960 setting for the story matches with the old songs featured in the films give audience impression of the era back into the past, the characters and the stories give the impression of youth and energy, they are still in the mood for passionate love with vigor and vitality. The film name also reminds us of an old film Rebel Without a Cause (1955), the era with a forever memorable star James Dean and his image similar with Yuddy. The setting also remind people of classic Hong Kong culture, the dance ball and nostalgic old song in the background, the local unique restaurant where the characters go to have lunch/tea, etc.

In the film, memory is explicitly discussed. Yuddy always claimed to be forgetful, evident by the dialogue with So Li-zhen that he forgot how long they met, and his direct mention of forgetfulness in dialogue with Tide. However, we would understand he remembered that particular minute with So Li-zhen at the end of the film. He actually cared but refused to acknowledge it and admit the truth.

When the subject matter is discussed broader in terms of city and homeland, it would reflect the people’s attitude and worries towards Hong Kong’s future. The colonial history would sink to the past and the hangover to China would come. Days of Being Wild is a film shortly after 1989 June 4 massacre and it brings us a question along with Yuddy’s comment at the ending of film: would forgetting actually be better than remembering? Forgetting may set us free but in reality is it possible to erase the memory in our own hands? The director brings us these puzzles and it may never come to full resolution as same story would apply to another set of people and all things would repeat again in the vicious cycle.

The importance of being remembered is also brought to table. So Li-zhen wanted to know if Yuddy remembered the moment, Yuddy’s foster mother would prefer Yuddy to hate her rather to forget her; Tide sighed So Li-zhen might forget him already when they met again. Hence in this way, the society (the city) could never forget, because she is the carrier of all these memories, and she records all these experiences and embraces it into the landscape. The city planning could change entirely and the buildings and houses would collapse or rebuild, this film already help shape the contemporary image of Hong Kong in her colonial period, when days could still be wild.

Search of root is a way to find one’s existing value and realize the self identity. The bird without legs is a legend, yet a cruel truth to Yuddy as well. Yuddy could not settle down at home because he was homeless since birth. The love from mother is the element he would never receive in his life. He did not choose to become the birds without legs, but the light steps following music and the shot showing his back without return already drive to the conclusion that Yuddy could only be flying till the end and the scene that Yuddy walk further and further away from the camera hints the character would die with the knot and never resolve his issue.

Other characters have the home issue more implicitly portrayed. The cop became sailor after his mother’s death, he began to be on the drift after he lost the closest family or home in Hong Kong; So Li-zhen had her real home in Macau and she experienced an inferiority living here when talking to the cop, like she never really belonged to here but Yuddy gave her the sense of belonging. That would possibly explain she would like to have permanent relationship with Yuddy in order to establish the self-identity in Hong Kong. She felt happy when Yuddy agreed to let her live with him while sad when Yuddy seemed uncared of the existence of relationship.

Encounter and miss would be another theme to express. People could not end up together because of wrong timing. Leung finally went to Phillipines and found the apartment, yet Yuddy already died; So Li-zhen finally called the cop, yet he already become a sailor and could not receive the call. People sometimes have chance to meet each other but could not develop further and deeper relationship. The director here uses camera techniques to show their brief encounter would end nowhere, like the cop and So Li-zhen, Leung Fung-ying and Zeb, the shot often focus on only one person in their together scenes. Leung danced in front of Zeb, or Tide waiting for So Li-zhen, the scenes show one person on the upper layer while another on the lower layer. It is another evidence for them not to be together. Furthermore, sometimes the narrow focus would mean the person who the character is talking to only acts as the background, like the scene of So and Tide’s talk about the one minute. So refused to eat Tide’s oranges while Leung refused to take Zeb’s car would be another evidence.

Finally, these love stories are not only occurring in these characters and they would pass along as they are common and all people would be haunted by loving the wrong person or missing the right person. Therefore, the film has allowed a continuity to send us a message about Yuddy’s death would not mean his personality’s death. Chow Mo-wan’s presence would be a metaphor for the society that there are a lot of people like him. In addition, when So opened her mind again and became ready for starting to love again, it has reinitiated the atmosphere for love to enter, meaning hope would continue and the character is still on the ride. Maybe there would be hurt in the journey, however after the event the characters, which resemble you and me, could still stand up and bravely strive for one’s own happiness.

After all, everyone would experience the same struggle and painful memory in different ages of their life, however, to remember or to forget is up to everyone’s free will. Remembering the experience and learning from it would help shape a better handling of relationship in the future while forgetting the feeling would help relieve the emotional burden of your own self.

Days of Being Wild - A True Timeless Classic (1)

Days of Being Wild 阿飛正傳

Director: Wong Kar-wai

Cast: Leslie Cheung, Carina Lau, Rebecca Pan, Maggie Cheung

Rating: 90/100



Days of Being Wild is a film about hope and disappointments, remember and forget, the search of one’s own root, own home, and encounter and miss. Also it talks about the continuation of the journey for love, it is all the same when people are young and it applies to all people despite the generation gap or changes in the society.

Disappointment always emerges after a high expectation is given. Leung finds Yuddy’s house is not special after a long-time expectation, it would mean without the initial expectation, disappointment would be avoided. However people would always live with expectation, especially throughout the whole film. So Li-zhen hopes for marriage with Yuddy, Leung Fung-Ying hopes to be together with Yuddy while Zeb hopes to be with Leung, Yuddy wants to get along with his biological mother and Tide hopes to receive the phone call from So Li-zhen. Everyone has his or her own hopes but finally all of them are disappointed.

A lot of close-up shots are used for the characters when they experience disappointment and loss, like Yuddy’s foster mother had sadness in her face when Yuddy left with the truth of whereabouts of his mother. These shots are usually static and stay for a long time to magnify and emphasize the power and emotional level of disappointment.

There are also a lot of rainy days portraying the characters not satisfied or feeling a significant loss in their lives. So Li-zhen wanted to be together with Yuddy again only to be rejected and the rain poured heavily, the more obvious example would be Zeb drove the car to follow Leung and they both could not get who they loved, it could be resembled by the scene of heavy rain.

Nevertheless, after the rain, all the characters may not immediately recover from the pain, yet they all seem to rediscover their directions of life, they all made their choices which they would take action. So Li-zhen decided to start over, Leung decided to go to Philippines to find Yuddy while Zeb decided to sell the car to help Leung, meaning his decision for abandoning (or hiding) the love for Leung. The rain resembles a period for people to rethink and try to figure ways out of the maze they brought to themselves. The character who has no chance to experience the rain is Yuddy, he continues the journey without landing or stopping at anywhere. He is not going to land even after his death since the train is still heading forward. Therefore, the ultimate disappointment which cannot be recovered is not about the long-lost love between lovers, yet it is about the love devoted to home, to your own blood line.

The film name is actually reflecting days of youngsters and frivolity when young people would freely choose what to do without a price. They would not realize the end of life is coming, and they would try their best to go forward to search for more possibilities. No mentioning of responsibility and moral burdens would keep them move on and on, like the birds without legs said by Yuddy in the film.

The “Cha-cha” dancing in his room earlier already shows Yuddy’s personality which is so relaxing and light with mix of rhythm. “Cha-cha” does not contain the typical “rise and fall” motion and it perfectly matches with birds flying without landing. Furthermore, the panning of camera from left to right over the forest resembles a bird. The plot that Yuddy would not like to be financially supported by Leung would match with the free-flying birds as well. Yuddy’s death in the moving train would perfectly resemble the birds, and he still could not land on the ground when he died.

Another recurring theme in Wong Kar Wai’s films is the motif of time, which is directly referenced in characters’ dialogues, like So Li-zhen and Yuddy built up their relationship by the one-minute to 3 pm while Yuddy and Leung finished establishing their first sexual relation at around 3 am. Yuddy met Tide in the Philippines, and the time was also around 3 am. Both time periods are the same but distinct in terms of day and night. 3 am, or 3 pm, is at the middle of day/night, approaching sunset/sunrise, resembling the period of depravity and disorientation.

The sleepless nights of different characters and the dark cinematography of scenes would be evidence of an intoxicating and restless status of the society and people living in there. Tide and So Li-zhen talked the whole night and later he talked with Yuddy when Yuddy wanted to drink until dawn. The static shot shows that time seem not to pass away so easily at these nights; a lot of establishing shots would be used to capture the features of the city (Hong Kong but not Philipines) which expresses a feeling of loneliness in the characters and time of pain and being alone would not easily leave.

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