> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Wong Kar Wai's '2046' Is a Dreamlike Elegy for a Lovelorn Womanizer
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/review-20050805/
- Published: 2005-08-05T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T07:33:16.000Z
- Author: Dan Dunn
- Tags: Entertainment, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*Hot sex removes any language barrier in ‘2046’*

The latest offering from revered film-maker Wong Kar Wai (“Fallen Angels,” “The Chungking Express”) certainly isn’t for everyone (“Dukes of Hazzard” devotees, for instance, need not apply), but those hankering for a subtitled, dreamlike elegy about a lovelorn lothario wrestling with painful memories in noirish 1960s Hong Kong should find plenty to love about “2046.” The film is a concomitant to Wong’s 2000 film festival favorite, “In the Mood for Love,” with Asian superstar Tony Leung reprising his role as Chow Mo Wan, a hard-boiled serial womanizer working on a sci-fi novel that shares its title with both the film and the hotel room where many of Chow’s sexual liaisons take place. It is the same room number in which, in the previous film, Chow carried on with his one true love, Su Li Zhen (Maggie Cheung, who has but a cameo here).

The non-linear, and at times confusing narrative follows Chow as he engages in steamy sexual trysts with one beautiful woman after another, then quickly beats an emotional retreat. This guy’s heart has been damaged beyond repair by Su Li Zhen, and he callously dispenses payback with every new conquest. Leung’s measured performance as an emotionally bankrupt, yet curiously endearing playboy is Bogart-esque, and he gets valuable support from his stunning leading ladies, Ziyi Zhang (“Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”), Faye Wong and Gong Li (“Red Sorghum”).

The production value is striking. Christopher Doyle’s camerawork and William Chang Suk Ping’s art design combine to give “2046” a surreptitious quality; it all seems like a salacious secret being whispered between veiled strangers in a smoky, ill-lit anteroom. So what if it’s sometimes hard to tell what it is they’re saying? (Rated R for sexual content. Running time: 129 minutes)

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 5, 2005.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/080505.pdf?ref=smdp.com)