As Tears Go By (1988)
A Review of Wong Kar Wai’s film As Tears Go By.
This was one of the Wong Kar Wai movies I hadn’t seen, and, obviously, once I got a free copy of it to stream online of course I jumped on the opportunity to watch it. This was Wong Kar Wai’s debut as a director, and it starred Andy Lau and the ever-so-brilliant Maggie Cheung, who’d later appear in other of Wong’s films.
As Tears Go By was actually the most profitable Wong Kar Wai film out of all of his nineties film in his homeland of Hong Kong, which I found to be quite fascinating. Usually, you’d imagine that the value would go up with each movie, not with the first movie he comes out with, right?
I knew nothing about this movie, didn’t even look up the basic synopsis, and I was pleasantly surprised. I’m usually someone who doesn’t like gangster films, but this one worked decently. At the same time, I will admit, it’s not my general cup of tea, but if this is right up your alley, then keep on reading to discover more.
Content
Kind of a big warning, but there’s a bit of incest within this movie. The main character’s cousin, Ngor, comes into Hong Kong because she had an illness/disease in her lungs, and it’s starting to malfunction. She stays with him while in the city, and a romance just brews up?
A bit strange, I personally wasn’t a fan of this plotline, especially as they start to kiss and whatnot. Perhaps this is because I grew up in a culture where incest is heavily frowned upon, so, perhaps, my cultural bias is really coming in strong here. Not suggesting this is normal at all though in Hong Kong—just my personal experience of it not being culturally normal to me as a Western, kind of liberal, viewer.
There’s this one scene after the main character threatens Ngor and she lays on the couch in his apartment, sleeping all innocently. I liked that scene quite a bit, as it had quite sad and mournful music as the moonbeams and light of the radiator splashes all over her face.
He stands over her, watching her sleep innocently, and smokes a cigarette. Something about that scene really got to me man. And then they act like nothing happens the next morning, peacefully eating their breakfast.
I found this movie to be a bit harder to watch at times because I just didn’t care about the male lead or anyone under him in the crime world. His job is to be the debt collector and his subordinate is an idiot who constantly gets himself into trouble, setting up the conflicts in this film. In general, I think they’re all idiots for getting caught up in these kinds of things on a daily basis.
In terms of cinematography, we see hints of Wong’s future greatness in his choice of color and shots. He plays with movement, particularly in violent scenes, to make them seem like they’re in staggered motion. Lots of blues and muted color palettes during these kinds of scenes, since they’re a bit darker in nature. Lights are used more in scenes with Ngor.
Overall Thoughts
The only thing echoing in my head right now as I sit to type this final stretch of the review is that wow, Maggie Cheung looks so young in this film. At the end of the day, this is an okay film. It’s a must-watch if you’re a Wong Kar-Wai fan, of course, since you kind of has to watch all of his movies.
But because you come in with this expectation that it’s a WKW movie, you expect more of his later style in the nineties films. You’re not going to find that as much in this film. It’s a strong debut, but since we’re talking about a director who has become quite renowned for a particular style, this just doesn’t quite match up.
