Love and violence in the neon lit streets of Hong Kong…
Wong Kar-wai is a name I hear all the time from friends who are into Hong Kong cinema. While I’ve never seen his more popular films In the Mood for Love and Chungking Express, recently MUBI had one of his earlier films on their monthly service and I found myself drifting into it. Starring the immortal looking Andy Lau and Maggie Cheung, the film is a satisfying look into the depths of love and the layers of life that people live in waiting for that proverbial moment.
Wah (Andy Lau) is a mid-level cog in a triad gang, working as a debt collector. He is the guy you see cruising through a bar that everyone knows, that never makes waves above his station, has the respect of his juniors and the ear of his seniors. His brother Fly (Jacky Cheung) works at a much lower level and tries everything to get ahead. In doing so, he angers another member of the gang, Tony (Alex Mann), who wreaks his vengeance on Fly and another of Fly’s friends. At the same time, Wah’s cousin from nearby Lantau, Ngor (Maggie Cheung), comes to visit him. After patching up Fly and the other guy, Ngor becomes scared of Wah’s lifestyle when through she and he do develop a quick rapport. She leaves and despite Wah’s efforts to smooth over the rift in the gang with Tony, Fly angers Tony again. But at the same time, Wah can’t get Ngor out of his head and decides to pursue her.
The film’s light runtime might speak against it but the story itself moves along at a very quick pace. From the streets to Wah and Ngor hanging out and starting to fall in love and back to the streets takes no time at all and Kar-wai never stops for a moment. Like his lead character, his story has a limited life span and fills every minute it can with exposition and movement. The film only ever slows down for Wah and Ngor to get closer and these moments are sappy, sure, but valuable to us because they tell us what the characters are fighting for. Wah becomes vulnerable to Ngor in the scene after he’s found her again because she can see he’s trying. She could turn away and forget him gently and he’d go back to the darkness and end up dead in an alleyway shootout. You may not like that Wah will never give up on the gang but his loyalty is also what makes him fight for his younger brother when even Wah’s mentor in the gang has given up on him. Kar-wai stages a scene with Fly and Wah at a wedding where Wah tries his best to get Fly out of the race and to safety. Though the scene is at night, it’s very much in the style of Coppola and the wedding scene from the original Godfather where what’s happening around the main cast is more important than what they are saying. The characters are at a critical impasse and what they decide next will decide all their fates. Wah looks so sad knowing he’s got to crush Fly’s dreams. And Fly has the look of a man who knows what’s coming next and was just trying to delay it as long as possible. Kar-wai has an excellent eye for scene dynamics and tension.
I’m written before of my love for the Hong Kong of the 1980’s as depicted in cinema. I know it’s a fable and probably was never like how it is in the films but there’s something about the place that makes it an exciting place for stories to take place. From its neon nights to the gentle sunrises over the bay, it’s the perfect place to set a film. So it is in As Tears Go By where the background is as much a character as the cast. Everywhere Wah goes in the night is rainy, greasy with fluorescent lighting grimly illuminating the people in it. All the bars have rentable people in rentable clothes staring drunkenly or blankly back at you. Everywhere is dangerous, nowhere is safe or private. For Wah, the top of his apartment might be the only place he can escape from the insanity of his life. When we get to Lantau, it’s like another world and Wah treats it as such because you could never imagine a triad fight happening here. It’s gentle, with the sound of the ocean lapping over the background, and this is Ngor’s world. This is where she came from and when Wah visits her, he’s really being invited into her world. What’s really well composed about the film is that, the earlier Wah, the one who ignored and lashed out at his cousin, would never have gotten out here.
Wong Kar-wai seems to know his main character is doomed. Everywhere he turns, it’s a dead end. He’ll never give up but that doesn’t mean it’ll end well for him. But as we learn about Wah, Ngor or Fly, we see that they need to feel alive more than they need to feel safe and secure. Ngor starts the film scared that her breathing problems will limit her prospects in life and for a time, she plays it safe. But living with Wah and seeing him struggle to find a bright point in his day makes her want to abandon safety for surety. Fly looks up to his brother but needs to be his own man and if he doesn’t, he’ll die standing up in the streets instead of face down. Wah is a man who should have been someone. To quote Brando he “could have been a contender.” But the fate he was dealt means he’ll never be happy so he takes his happiness where he can. When he first meets Ngor, he’s just been told by his girlfriend that she’s had a termination. So on one hand, his one legitimate chance to escape the gang is now gone and he’s only got the gang for solace. But on the other hand, he ignored his girlfriend and she, in her desperation and jealousy, decided not to carry his child. So is he really that hard done by in this scenario? Even he is conflicted so he lashes out at his cousin despite her gentle nature not being deserving of it. But her presence changes Wah and sets him on a new course, one that he can’t see the end of.
Andy Lau and Maggie Cheung take complete control of this film and their dual performances of the cynic and the innocent who find each other remind us that they have always had this power. So when you see Lau in the latest CG fest, remember he can command an amazing range and when you see Cheung in the Police Story films as Jackie Chan’s hapless and hard done by girlfriend, know that she skates, not walks, over the role of Ngor with an effortless style that catches your breath if not your attention.
As Tears Go By is a bittersweet story and ends as you think it will but Wong Kar-wai makes you care what the journey for these two lovers will look like rather than where they end up. Truly as Tennyson said: “better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.”