Happy Together

Starring: Leslie Cheung, Tony Leung Chiu Wai Director: Kar Wai Wong Original UK Premiere: 1998 Dvd Release: 2nd September, 2003 Number Of Discs: 1 Format: Colour, Letterboxed, NTSC, Widescreen, Region 0 Encoding Subtitled In: English

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After the article has been cleaned up, you may remove this message. For help, see How to Edit a Page & the style & How-to Directory. Happy Together is a 1997 Hong Kong movie directed by Wong Kar-wai, starring Leslie Cheung & Tony Leung Chiu Wai. Music by Sugar Minott. A gay couple from pre-handover Hong Kong visits Argentina to renew their lagging relationship. Among other sites, they want to visit the Iguacu waterfalls which serve as a leitmotiv in the movie & represents their desire to revive the intensity of attraction they felt at the outset of their relationship. The couple runs out of money & are force to return to Hong Kong. Separating, Ho-Po Wing becomes a hustler, while Lai Yiu-fai ekes out a living as a waiter. One day Ho-Po Wing turns up injured at Lai Yiu-fais apartment, beaten & is taken in by Lai. Their former relationship of mutual abuse & dependence is rekindled, even though Lai does not want to have sex with Ho-Po Wing anymore. At work, Lai becomes sexually interested in Chang, a fellow Chinese. Posters Of Happy Together

The expressionistic, stylised visual brilliance of Happy Together is so breathtaking & enveloping it nearly detracts from this startling, queasy, despairing glimpse at a gay relationship gone amok. Director Wong Kar-Wai won the Best Director Prize at Cannes in 1997, surprising many; but on viewing the film its easy to see why. The subject matter may not be the easiest to swallow, any relationship on the rocks sometimes gets dirty & pathetically disturbing, but there is a universality to Happy Together that rings true & real & less like an edition of The Honeymooners than isolation tinged with the embarrassment of intimacy. Ho & Lai have left Hong Kong for Buenos Aires. The journey is another in Hos attempts to start over. But their initial optimism is short-lived, & once they become dislocated strangers in this strange land it only further thrusts the two into their already co-dependent dark love affair. But like all crazy love, the trip through masochistic hell, from violence to apathy, leads to self-enlightenment, & Wong Kar-Wais gorgeous, grasping film is true, tricky, difficult & emotionally wrought, aided by Hong Kong superstars Cheung & Leung, who contribute greatly to creating a work that is exceptional, & lump-in-throat brutal, in image, story & performance.

Leslie Cheung Kwok Wing was a Cantopop singer & the star of several Hong Kong movies. His fans passionately called him Gor-gor, started by Joey Wong when they co-starred in A Chinese Ghost Story. He was born the youngest of 10 children. His parents divorced when he was quite young. He studied at Leeds University in northern England although he never graduated from Leeds University as he was forced to return to Hong Kong after a family mishap. In 1976 he took second prize at ATV Asian Music Contest. He signed on at the Rediffusion Television & his career took off. In a self-confessed statement made in a radio broadcast of a an autobiography of himself made in 1985 he admitted that he had a reasonably tough childhood. During the early days of his career, he was first booed off the stage when he first appeared in the public & his first ever film was a low-point of his career as his role in that film was one associated with explicit sexual content which was not his choice, The Erotic Dream of the Red Chamber in 1978. Posters Of Happy Together

Editors Choice: Inner Senses, Happy Together, The Bride With White Hair, The Bride With White Hair 2, Chinese Ghost Story, Days Of Being Wild, A Chinese Ghost Story, Once A Thief, View DVDology

Tony Leung Chiu Wai is a Hong Kong movie & ex- television actor. Born in Hong Kong, with origins in Taishan, Guangdong Province, China, he was brought up under a single-parent family. In 1982, after passing the training courses of the television channel TVB, Tony Leung became an actor & became known for his comedy roles in television & film. During his career he soon showed his versatility in about 60 films. Many consider Tony Leungs breakthrough role to be in director John Woo s 1992 action film Hard Boiled acting alongside with Chow Yun-Fat. Leung however first gained international exposure through Hou Hsiao-Hsien s 1989 film A City of Sadness, which won the Venice Golden Lion. Tony Leung often collaborates with director Wong Kar-Wai & has appeared in many of his films. His most notable roles in Wong Kar-Wais films include his lonely policeman in Chungking Express, his homosexual Chinese ex-patriate living in Argentina in Happy Together & a repressed victim of adultery in In the Mood for Love. He is considered by many to be the finest actor in Hong Kong of his generation. Posters Of Happy Together

Editors Choice: In The Mood For Love, Infernal Affairs, Happy Together, Infernal Affairs Iii, Chungking Express, Hero, Tokyo Raiders, Seoul Raiders, View DVDology

Wong Kar-wai is a Hong Kong film director known for his unique visual style of slow paced romantic art films. His trademark image is always wearing a stylish pair of dark sunglasses. Wong is his surname. // Born in Shanghai, China, he moved to Hong Kong with his parents at the age of five. Coming from the Mainland & speaking only Shanghainese, he had a difficult period of adjustment to Cantonese speaking Hong Kong, spending hours in movie theatres with his mother. After graduating from Hong Kong Polytechnic College in graphic design in 1980, he enrolled in the Production Training Course organized by Hong Kong Television Broadcasts Limited & became a full-time television scriptwriter. He subsequently graduated to feature film work. He is credited with about ten scripts between 1982 & 1987, covering an array of genres from romantic comedy to action drama, but claims to have worked to some extent or another on about fifty more without official credit. He considers Final Victory, a dark comedy/crime story for director Patrick Tam, his best script. Posters Of Fallen Angels

Editors Choice: In The Mood For Love, Fallen Angels, Happy Together, Chungking Express, View DVDology

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