The story of the film takes place in South America, Buenos Aires, relative to Hong Kong, is the other side of the earth, a pair of homosexuals, Lai Yaohui and Baorong Ho, split and reunited in a foreign country. It is always said that Wong Kar-wai's work tells a story from beginning to end, and "Happy Together" is no exception about rejection and escape, and freedom and search. “If you don’t want to be rejected by others, you must first reject others.” In the same work by Wang Jiawei, Ouyang Feng, also played by Leslie Cheung, said, in “Happy Together”, Leslie Cheung plays Ho Baorong. Incarnate as a beautiful shadow that lacks a sense of belonging, repeating the story of rejection and search.
From the perspective of the characters themselves, they are wandering, or even marginal. From Hong Kong to South America, they have a profound sense of rootlessness and alienation. It is still "Evil East and West Poison". There is a sentence like this in the dialogue. :
"What will be behind the desert?"
"Not yet another desert"
Even though South America is the end of the world, the most difficult thing to escape is the shackles of the soul. Therefore, Wang Jiawei is desperate, Li Yaohui is desperate, and He Baorong, he will not despair, because he has not found his own heart.
Judging from the color tone of the screen, the film can be divided into three parts. In the first 24 minutes, the two broke up irritably, Li Yaohui went to the bar alone to make money, and He Baorong wandered around. The screen was black and white. After 24 minutes, the two reunited. , So far the picture has color, just like Li Yaohui’s mood, the main colors are yellow, orange, and green, warm and lazy. The two are separated again, and the film also enters the third part. When the human voice is noisy, the picture is still orange. Lord, but when Li Yaohui appeared alone on the camera, the blue began to render lonely. These color transitions are in line with people's understanding of color in aesthetic experience. It can be said that Wang Jiawei's use of color is always direct and full of emotion.
The photography and editing of the film are often praised by professionals. Some critics say that "Spring Light" is the most technologically mature work of Wong Kar-wai. The tower's physical and form capabilities". However, when emotions break out of the framework of skills, skills become natural and untouchable. The excellent use of montage in "Spring Light" is worthy of recollection.
For example, a clip from the 13th and a half minutes of the film:
Li pushes the door open and enters the bathroom — He's figure reflected in the mirror — the door is closed in black — the door is opened, why go out — Li leans against the wall and meditates and then pushes the door out —— He opened the door of the bar and walked towards the car...
This montage connection is very concise and intently portraying the scene of two people passing by but no chance to meet, or understand that Li Yaohui specially avoided the helplessness of meeting He Baorong. The temptation was released between the gestures, but it was the deepest wound in Li's heart.
In the film, contrast montage and parallel montage also appear repeatedly. For example, in the 11-minute plot of the film, He leaves the bar where Li worked, Li carries a wine bottle to the middle of the road and watched He's car leave, and where is the next shot? Yan looked back at Li, whose figure was getting smaller, then turned her head back, her eyes indifferent. At 87 minutes of the film, Li came to the waterfall alone, with splashes of water mixed with tears, while at the same time He went back to the hut where the two had lived together and cried with a quilt alone. Both are very impactful.
In the use of symbolism, Wong Kar-wai is also quite proficient. The "footless bird" in "A Fei's True Story" symbolizes the soul that has no foundation and is looking for floating, and uses the constantly appearing clocks and watches to symbolize the loss of time's vague memory; The desert symbolizes the emotional desert and endless despair of modern people. There are also very important symbolic images in "Spring Light".
"One day, He Baorong bought a lamp. I think it's so pretty. The two really wanted to find the waterfall on the lamp." Li Yaohui said in such a monologue, so the lamp and the waterfall run through the entire film. The lamp is a testimony of the two people’s feelings. After the separation and recombination, He Baorong asked Li Yaohui, "This lamp is still there, I thought it was thrown away by you long ago." After Li Yaohui left, He Baorong debugged the lamp alone and turned it on again. Then weeped alone, showing that his regret was beyond reach. The waterfall directly symbolizes the goal that the two are pursuing, and it is a metaphor for the destination of the feelings, but in the end they are lost. Long shots of waterfalls repeatedly appear in the film, and a minute-and-a-half-minute overhead shot is slowly circulating to enhance the viewer's imagination and emotional enthusiasm. Wong Kar-wai himself was asked about the symbolic role of the waterfall scene. His answer was "the sexual energy of this city."
In addition, I have to mention the music of the film. From an artistic and aesthetic point of view, music has the lowest degree of dependence on material materials. Therefore, since it has been used to express emotions has become purer, and the connection with images has become more direct. And the perfect combination of music and pictures plays a multiplier role in the expression of emotions.
Tango music rippling in the tavern, the dim lights, the noisy crowd, the dancers are wild, and the alienation of people is looming. Tango was slang when it was born, because it was born in some low-level entertainment venues. The tango music in the film is Tango Nuevo. The late Argentine national treasure master Astor Piazzolla dissolves classical and jazz elements into traditional tango to the world. The new Tango is full of vitality and rich feelings.
In the film, when Lai Yaohui was rafting alone, he used Piazzolla's "prologue". The sad and heavy notes, matched with Lai Yaohui's dim and sad face, took away the hearts of the viewers. Tears floated and sinked with the music, and the camera moved slowly. , Flows to the endless emotional space.
A song "Cucurrucucu Paloma" was chanted in a low voice, which is a song about pigeons, "They swear, when they heard his cry, the sky began to shake violently, how much pain did he endure?... They swear , The soul of that pigeon has been waiting for the return of the lover... The stone is always a stone, pigeon, can you expect them to understand love? Cuckoo cuckoo, pigeon, don’t cry for him again...." Hui In the blue picture, the human voice murmured, so the thoughts overflowed so unbearably.
And so on, the music and the picture in the film are all amazingly fit, which often makes emotions rise with a sense of kneading and rotation.
The perfect combination of music, pictures, light and shadow, and many elements is the ultimate expression of film language, and it is the necessary guarantee for the film to be called art. And excellent works of art always have the power to make people realize repeatedly, and get the sublimation of comprehension in different aesthetic experiences. This is the case with "Happy Together", which is a movie that makes people watch again and again. Its charm comes from the warmth in the light and shadow, the harmony of the overall elements, and the continuous excavation of detachment. Watching a good movie and getting unusual aesthetic pleasure is to seize the footsteps of time.
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