Days of Being Wild is seen as the first film of an informal trilogy which includes In the Mood for Love and 2046. These films deal with issues of longing, loneliness, rejection and unrequited love. They are also films that exhibit director Wong Kar-Wai's methodically slow and meandering storytelling that he has become known for. While his other works Chungking Express and Fallen Angels have equally meandering stories, they display a frantic and kinetic style that is refreshing and exciting. That is not to say that this trilogy is aesthetically lacking; on the contrary, In The Mood For Love is one of the most visually striking films I've ever seen. It relies on the beauty and sadness of its story in conjunction with its subtle yet provocative visual style.
Days of Being Wild can sort of being seen as Wong finding his style. You can see instances of his visual flair but its not quite there yet. (In the film's defense, the Netflix stream I was watching seemed to be pretty poor.) It also sets the blueprint for the themes of many of Wong's future works, namely the aforementioned love, longing, loneliness, rejection and disappointment.
The film focuses on a young playboy named Yuddy who seemingly specializes in breaking girls' hearts. He has a destructive attitude regarding women primarily due to motherly issues. He desperately wants to know his real mother, but his adopted mother, a former high end escort, will not tell him about her in fear of being abandoned herself. In result, his whole psyche is a mess, fear of commitment yet longing for love, self destruction, pain, and anguish. In the movie, he smoothly captures two girls' hearts only to unmercifully break them.
He begins with a beautiful but shy girl Li Zhen working at a concession stand. He smoothly asks her to to look at his watch for a minute. She reluctantly obliges and he explains that they were friends for this one minute and that it cannot be taken back; he will remember this minute forever because of her. The two are shown together sometime later. She asks him if he would ever marry her and he coldly responds no. She is devastated. Then he is shown seducing another woman, a loud and vivacious dancer named Mimi. She invariably falls for his charms but she too will eventually be left by the wayside as he picks up and goes off to the Philippines in search of his mother.
Two side stories emerge. Li Zhen shows up at Yuddy's door, still heartbroken and devastated. A cop looks on with sympathy and he falls in love with her, but as long as Li Zhen still loves Yuddy, he keeps his feelings for her to himself. Yuddy's friend Zeb falls for Mimi. She recognizes this and warns him against it. Even when she has been ditched, she still refuses his advances, preferring instead to wait for Yuddy or live in sorrow. As is the case for many of Wong Kar-Wai's films, it is a matter of love gone wrong, either loving the wrong person or not acting out on it. These characters are all in desperate need for companionship yet none of them can offer it to each other.
It works beautifully and somberly in In the Mood For Love, but falls a little flat in Days of Being Wild. The primary problem is in the character of Yuddy himself. It is hard to connect or develop any feeling for someone who is so self destructive that he poisons everyone around him. He is so callous and undeserving of these women's affection it actually makes them look worse. When Mimi confronts Li Zhen, instead of realizing what kind of person Yuddy is, she goes off on her. Mimi herself doesn't seem worthy of any sympathy either throughout the film. Li Zhen comes out innocent of all this mess but unfortunately her feelings for Yuddy brings not only her down but the cop who loves her as well. It's all a despairing mess. Aside from Li Zhen, I just had a lot of difficulty feeling for anybody in the film. Yet, I cannot deny the potential the film displays, its ability to evoke emotions through its tone and style, even if I didn't like the characters. In that way, Days of Being Wild can sort of be seen as a work in progress of a feeling and style that he would bring into his future films.
Grade: B-
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