Challenging but the payoff is worthwhile

rooprect

Kar Wai Wong's 2nd feature film is considerably more abstract than his first "As Tears Go By". so if you're looking for a good first Kar Wai Wong film to watch, you should probably start there.

"Days of Being Wild" reminded me very much of the classic French book "The Stranger" by Albert Camus; in fact I wonder if Kar Wai Wong may have been influenced by that book. Both stories center around a young man who is very unemotional except at times of explosive violence. Both stories show the young man to have severe mommy issues, i.e. a disconnection from his mother resulting in never learning how to show love and caring. And in both stories, the main character follows a very existentialistic path in life. He goes wherever life may take him with no connection to people or places.

The main character is not very likable. In fact he's a downright jerk toward women. But this ties in with the story of him trying to find his mother who abandoned him when he was a child. At the same time we see the interweaving of 4 other characters: 2 girlfriends, 1 devoted friend who falls for one of the girlfriends, and a policeman who enters the story by chance. Oh yeah, there's also the young man's rich aunt (adoptive mother) and a string of men she keeps.

It may be tough keeping up with all the characters, especially when the story starts moving to different locations. Certain events may seem random, but in the end it all comes together with a very poetic thought.

If you're a cinema geek, you'll love this film for its sheer technical achievements. A lot of scenes are shot with reflections & mirrors, allowing us to see the faces of different people simultaneously (without the camera jumping back & forth to whoever is talking). For example, the camera may be on a woman while she talks to a man. He is in front of the camera with his back to us, but we see his face & expressions in the reflection of a bathroom mirror behind the woman. Yea, I'm a cinema geek so I love stuff like that. If you like little details, you'll have a great time watching "Days of Being Wild".

score /10

rooprect 17 September 2014

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw3087990/