The lives of several lovelorn individuals (Leslie Cheung, Maggie Cheung, Andy Lau) intersect as they drift through Hong Kong.
Wong Kar Wai’s breakthrough sophomore feature represents the first full flowering of his swooning signature style. The first film in a loosely connected, ongoing cycle that includes IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE and 2046, this ravishing existential reverie is a dreamlike drift through the Hong Kong of the 1960s in which a band of wayward 20-somethings — including a disaffected playboy (Leslie Cheung) searching for his birth mother, a lovelorn woman (Maggie Cheung) hopelessly enamored with him, and a policeman (Andy Lau) caught in the middle of their turbulent relationship — pull together and push apart in a cycle of frustrated desire. The director’s inaugural collaboration with both cinematographer Christopher Doyle (who lends the film its gorgeously gauzy, hallucinatory texture) and actor Tony Leung (who appears briefly in a tantalizing teaser for a never-realized sequel), DAYS OF BEING WILD is an exhilarating first expression of Wong’s trademark themes of time, longing, dislocation and the restless search for human connection.
"Every shot is perfectly composed and compelling, with light and shadow manipulated to maximum effect." - San Francisco Examiner
"A must-see... Days of Being Wild is also an excellent entry point for people who haven't yet caught this most exotic and habit-forming of cinematic bugs." - Toronto Star
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