Wong Kar-wai has recently garnered critical acclaim for his film The Grandmaster, but one of his films from 20 years ago is the true, nearly-forgotten gem. Two Hong Kong cops, known only as Badge No. 223 (Takeshi Kaneshiro) and Badge No. 663 (Tony Leung Chiu-Wai), have just had their hearts broken, and the movie follows their weird, but sincere attempts to get over the girls they've lost. Badge No. 223 starts by buying cans of pineapple with the expiration date May 1, because he sees that as the cutoff point if his ex-girlfriend was to ever return to him. Badge No. 663 spends his time hanging around a fast-food emporium, to the boss's increasing annoyance. But both encounter new women, and the movie turns into a Before-Sunrise-esque film, but not without its quirks, of course. Badge No. 223 decides he will fall in love with the next woman who enters the bar- a drug smuggler in a blonde wig (Brigitte Lin). Badge No. 663 is steered towards the counter girl (Faye Wang), a trim girl rocking the Jean Seberg haircut while listening to "California Dreamin'" on an endless loop. It's a duplex romance made special by the dizzying backdrop and beautiful cast.
It was originally released in the United States under Quentin Tarantino's stewardship, but make no mistake, this is not like the Grindhouse/Planet Terror movies Tarantino has also taken under his wing, it's more of a modern, neon version of Jean Luc Godard's work. The film cuts in and out of each story, and though one seems to be more of a crime story, the other a romantic comedy, it's easy to confuse the two or meld them into one seamless tale. That's not a drawback here, though. The two men are so emotionally similar that the sameness helps ground an otherwise overly-stylized and imaginative film.
It was originally released in the United States under Quentin Tarantino's stewardship, but make no mistake, this is not like the Grindhouse/Planet Terror movies Tarantino has also taken under his wing, it's more of a modern, neon version of Jean Luc Godard's work. The film cuts in and out of each story, and though one seems to be more of a crime story, the other a romantic comedy, it's easy to confuse the two or meld them into one seamless tale. That's not a drawback here, though. The two men are so emotionally similar that the sameness helps ground an otherwise overly-stylized and imaginative film.