2046 — First session questions and scene summaries

Questions for the first session:

Underlined areas are the likely focus of in-class discussion.

I. Select ONE of the below to include on your written submission. (Always include question number and question content.)

TWENTY(1)-1. Compare "longing" as you perceive it in this film and in Tale of Genji.

TWENTY(1)-2. Soundtrack is very important to this film in how to interpret scenes. During the film I will signal when to listen, then jot down what interpretive message you think the music brings to the scene:

0:16:37-0:17:32 (Lulu / Mimi's story, "Perfidia/YouTube" "Perfidia/Wiki" Spanish song) ... just note for now

0:23:27-0:25:17 (Wang Jing Wen, "Casta Diva" from Bellini's opera Norma) ... write very brief comments (I won't stop the film)

0:27:57-0:29:50 [ends with man looking back over his shoulder through hanging curtain] (Lulu / Mimi's death, "Oh! S'io Potessi Dissipar Le Nubi" from Bellini's opera Il Pirata; Act II, Scene 3 — YouTube, listen from 5:57) ... compare this android version of Lulu / Mimi's story with that of the real Lulu / Mimi in the first soundtrack segment (Perfidia) .... you have a couple of minutes

0:31:04-0:31:47 [ends with Ping getting hit on the head] (Bai Ling, "Siboney") ... write brief comments after we get to the end of the segment, not now. ("Siboney" is a Cuban song about homesickness.)

*Note: The director draws his music from an A-list of movie diretors (Fassbinder, Truffaut) as well as famous movies ("Perfidia" is in Casablanca), and other high profile sources as well as having an extensive original score. Extensive information is available at Wiki / 2046, but it is not as complete as it looks.

Scene summaries — DVD menu scenes 1-7 (0:00:00-0:34:00, elapsed time 0:34)

Note: All scene summaries for all movies were made by me, usually fairly quickly while viewing the film in real time and typing as it happens. There are bound to be errors. I remind students of the extra credit offer described at the scene summary section of the page "House of Flying Daggers-Module 01".

Same composer for original soundtrack as for Flying Daggers (listen to main theme at Scene 5)

Scene 1 (Future)

Opens with futuristic train

Tak on the train back from 2046, and explaining that he went in search of a woman whom he had loved:

"Before when people had secrets they didn't want to share … they'd climb a mountain, find a tree and carve a hole in it … and whisper the secret into the hole … then cover it over with mud. That way, nobody else would ever discover it.

I once fell in love with someone. After a while, she wasn't there. I went to 2046. I thought she might be waiting or me there. But I couldn't find her. I can't stop wondering if she loved me or not. But I never found out. Maybe her answer was like a secret that no one else would ever know.

ALL MEMORIES ARE TRACES OF TEARS"

And a student has sent these details (thanks Yolanda!):

The long version of original story [a Greek myth about Mida] can be found here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midas
The popular Chinese version translated the story into a fairy tale and doesn't have all the business with Apollo. It's simply just the cited paragraph below.

"Midas [the King] was mortified at this mishap. He attempted to hide his misfortune under an ample turban or headdress, but his barber of course knew the secret, so was told not to mention it. However, the barber could not keep the secret; he went out into the meadow, dug a hole in the ground, whispered the story into it, then covered the hole up. A thick bed of reeds later sprang up in the meadow, and began whispering the story, saying "King Midas has an ass' ears". [Later on, everybody in the country just knows that the King has donkey ears.]

I'm fairly certain that director Wong didn't invent the digging hole concept because this is a somewhat well known fairy tale in China (despite the fact that he is in HK [I would just add, "in Hong Kong" yes but he's lived and studied all over the world].) However, I'm not sure if he's relating to this story or simply borrowing the concept. If he is relating, it would be interesting because the tale has the second part which is the secret got out and no secret can be kept.

Scene 2 (Singapore, sometime between 1963 an 1966: “All Memories Are Traces of Tears” — Su Li-Zhen/Black Spider story)

“All memories are traces of tears” heads the scene

Chow Mo-wan tells Su Li-Zhen (same name as the woman he loved in In the Mood for Love) that he will leave for Hong Kong since there are no prospects for him here. Her eyes tear up. He asks if she will go with him; she says he knows nothing of her past.

They gamble to decide it; she wins, her indirect way of rejecting him.

Transitions to next scene with futuristic train

Scene 3 (Hong Kong 1966, Christmas Eve and some days later—Lulu story)

Chow Mo-wan makes a living writing porn in Hong Kong, and becomes a ladies man.

Chow Mo-wan meets a woman he knew in Singapore named Lulu. (She is also Mimi from the first film of the trilogy, Days of Being Wild, and she is an android on the futuristic train.) He speaks with her about her lost love-of-her-life, a Filipino man. He notices her room number is 2046 (the room where he had an affair with the woman he loved, Su Li-Zhen).

Scene 4 (Hong Kong 1966 or 67, a few days later—Lulu story closure and the Wang Jing Wen story)

When he returns two days later to give back to Lulu her key, the hotel owner Mr. Wang says she is gone. (The same actor plays the conductor on the futuristic train.)

He returns to ask to rent 2046. It is closed for renovation but he can rent 2047, down the hall.

Actually, 2046 is blood drenched as Lulu’s boyfriend killed her; her relationships always ended sadly.

Cut to a woman speaking in Japanese, the daughter of Mr. Wang, named Wang Jing Wen. She says over and over “Let’s go.” (She has gone crazy, having been forced to leave her boyfriend, who looks like Tak on the futuristic train.)

Scene 5 (Hong Kong but flashback to some time, probably in 1966 — Wang Jing Wen story and minor Wang Jie Wen story)

Wang Jing Wen has a Japanese boyfriend (his Japanese company had sent him to Hong Kong, and he checked into the hotel) Mr. Wang is against the relationship. This man has no name but he is played by the same actor who plays “Tak” the lonely Japanese on the train in the future.

The Japanese boyfriend asks her if she loves him or not. No answer. He leaves for Japan.

But before that, Mr Wang and his daughter fight about him, using opera music to hide the yelling.

Chow also flirts with Mr Wang’s younger daughter (Wang Jie Wen)

Jing ends up in the hospital, Jie runs away with a boy (we are told, these events are not shown)

Scene 6 (Hong Kong May – September 1967, Chow begins writing 2046)

Chow stops going out; he begins writing a story called “2046” about men and women looking for love. Readers like it. But “2046” is just a room number to him.

No dialogue, vignettes from the story … jealous murder etc (and the Su Li-Zhen from Singapore is there a bit, as is Tak)

He becomes comfortable in his fictional world

Scene 7 (Hong Kong September 1967 — Introduction of Bai Ling)

Someone has again moved into 2046, a feisty woman, Bai Ling. Seductive, sassy Cuban music (“Siboney”). So, in the room so far: Lulu, then Wang Jing Wen, now Bai Ling.

Chow’s colleague, Ah Ping, wants him to set up a meeting with the new girl Bai Ling. He does so, but his friend is cheap in his approach, angers Bai Ling and Chow has to go to apologize.