Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Happy Together/春光乍洩 (Chun gwong cha sit) (1997)

6/24/2022

Happy Together/春光乍洩 (Chun gwong cha sit) (1997) - Kar-Wai's expat love drama magic

♥♥♥♥♥

+ 2nd Best Movie of the Year

+ Best Buenos Aires Movie of the Year + Best On-Screen Couple of the Year: Tony Leung & Leslie Cheung + Best Rainbow Movie of the Year + Best Romance of the Year

A scene of love from the film is used on this lovely poster for Wong Kar Wai's Happy Together. - This poster was banned in Hong Kong

In a spartan apartment in Buenos Aires, two Hong Kong expats live as a couple, who love but also argue and combat each other and their lives as gay foreigners far from home.

Happy Together is written and directed by Chinese master filmmaker Wong Kar-Wai (As Tears Go By/Wong Gok ka moon (1988)), adapting The Buenos Aires Affair (1973) by Manuel Puig (Kiss of the Spider Woman (1976)).

It is a rarely un-prettied up and intimate, authentic portrayal of love, and one that's more blue than red so to speak. Tony Leung (Lust, Caution/Se, jie (2007)) is excellent as our protagonist, who works as a doorman and later in a restaurant and struggles with his boyfriend's looseness and volatility.

SPOILER Intermingled with the heartaches lie beauty and new friendship, as the two break up. Happy Together is a deeply moving and precious depiction, at the same time playful, youthful and accomplished.

My Blueberry Nights (2007) - A slice too cute
2046 (2004) - Kar-Wai's visually resplendent, empty hull of a movie

The 2000s in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

Top 10: Best erotic movies reviewed by Film Excess to date

2000 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

In the Mood for Love/花樣年華/faa1joeng6 nin4waa4/huāyàng niánhuá (2000) - Kar-Wai's delectable home run

1997 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

Top 10: Best gay-themed titles
Chungking Express/重慶森林 (1994) - Kar-Wai's urban love drama is a visual treat

Watch a very short trailer for the film here

Cost: 4.2 mil. $

Box office: In excess of 1.9 mil. $

= Uncertain

[Happy Together premiered 17 May (Cannes Film Festival, in competition) and runs 96 minutes. Leung was lured to Argentina for the shoot with a fake script and was only then informed that he would have to do a gay sex scene in the film. Shooting took place in Argentina, including in Buenos Aires, Brazil, Hong Kong and in Taipei City, Taiwan. The film opened #21 to a 12k $ first weekend in 1 theater in North America, where it grossed 320k $. The film made 8.6 mil. $ HK, equal to approximately 1.1 mil. $. It was also released in many other markets, and the real total gross is regrettably not possible to ascertain but may likely be in the 2-4 mil. $ span. It has made at least 251k $ and 195k $ in re-release grosses in 2020 and 2021. It won the Best Director prize in Cannes and 1/9 Hong Kong Film awards, among other honors. Kar-Wai returned with a 1998 Motorola commercial and theatrically with In the Mood for Love/Fa yeung nin wah (2000). Leung returned in '97 Aces Go Places/Jui gaai paak dong: Jui gai paak dong (1997); Leslie Cheung (Viva Erotica/Sik ching nam lui (1996)) in Ninth Happiness/Gau sing bou hei (1998). Happy Together is fresh at 82 % with a 7.40/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Happy Together?

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William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

William Hurt has passed away

Born in Washington D.C., Hurt's first film role was the lead in Altered States (1980). Later credits include Body Heat (1981), The Big Chill (1983), Gorky Park (1983), Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985), for which he earned his only Oscar as Best Actor; Chilrdren of a Lesser God (1986), for which he was also Oscar-nominated; Broadcast News (1987), for which he was again Oscar-nominated; Smoke (1995), A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), A History of Violence (2005), for which he was again Oscar-nominated; The Good Shepherd (2006), Into the Wild (2007), Robin Hood (2010) and many more. Hurt passed away at age 71. R.I.P.

Ivan Reitman has passed away

Born in Chechoslovakia, now Slovakia, Reitman's family fled the Soviet regime to Austria, then Toronto, when he was 4 years old. Reitman broke into movies as a director with Foxy Lady (1971). Later credits include Cannibal Girls (1973), Meatballs (1979), Stripes (1981), Ghostbusters (1984), Twins (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Kindergarten Cop (1990), Junior (1994), Father's Day (1997), Evolution (1998), No Strings Attached (2011), Draft Day (2014) and more. Reitman's son Jason Reitman is also a great filmmaker. Reitman passed away at age 75. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (6-24)

6/24/2022

Happy Together/春光乍洩 (Chun gwong cha sit) (1997) - Kar-Wai's expat love drama magic

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Eagerly anticipating this week ... (5-24)

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