DAYS OF BEING WILD is Wong Kar-wai’s first collaboration with master cinematographer Christopher Doyle
DAYS OF BEING WILD (A FEI JING JUEN) (Wong Kar-wai, 1990)
Mid-Manhattan Library
455 Fifth Ave. at 40th St.
Wednesday, February 6, free, 7:00
www.nypl.org
Wong Kar-wai’s second film, Days of Being Wild, following the surprising success of his debut feature, As Tears Go By, was a popular failure, as Hong Kong audiences were not yet ready for his introspective, character-driven, nonlinear style. (However, it did win five Hong Kong Film Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor.) Days is Wong’s first film with master cinematographer Christopher Doyle, who has since shot all of Wong’s work, including Chungking Express, Fallen Angels, Happy Together, and In the Mood For Love. The late Leslie Cheung, who jumped out a hotel window in 2003, stars as Yuddy, a disaffected, beautiful youth who lures in women and then, after they fall in love with him, verbally mistreats them and cheats on them. Among his conquests are the gorgeous Su-Lizhen (Maggie Cheung), often shot in magnificent close-up, and the trampy Mimi (Carina Lau), who is jealous of Su, who takes comfort in telling her tale of woe to local police officer Tide (Andy Lau). Meanwhile, Yuddy, who was raised by a former prostitute, is obsessed with finding his birth mother, two facts that just might be part of the reason he treats women as he does. Set in 1960, the film’s leitmotif involves time and memory, with clocks ticking loudly and lots of long, lingering looks. The story goes a bit haywire in the latter sections, although the ending is a gem. (Look for Tony Leung there.) Days of Being Wild is screening for free February 6 at the Mid-Manhattan Library as part of the series “Three Auteurs of World Cinema: Wong Kar-wai,” which continues February 13 with Happy Together and February 20 with In the Mood for Love.