2046 — Third session questions and scene summaries

Questions for the third 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 (3)-1. We have asked previously what might be the role(s) of deception in romance. Now I would like you to consider: What might be the role(s) of secrets in this film?

TWENTY (3)-2. What is the nature of "communication" (broadly defined as use of words spoken or written and actions meant to have a meaning but also includes the lack of these things) between lovers in this film? If you can, put some thought to the question of letters since letters will be important in Three Times, too.

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

TWENTY (3)-3. In keeping with our interest in considering love expressed as longing, if we take "longing" to be the definition of romantic love, which character is most deeply in love? Remember that the object of that love may or may not exist, may or may not be alive, may or may not be present.

Scene summaries — DVD menu scenes 15-23 (1:03:34-1:36:34, elapsed time 0:33)

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".

Scene 15 (Hong Kong, some time soon after the previous scene — Bai Ling story continues)

Bai Ling brings a man to her room and evidently that make noisy love that night because Chow comments to this effect the next day to Bai Ling. She says she wanted to see if he really didn't mind if she had men. In response, he brings a woman to his room and they make noisy love, with Bai Ling sadly listening from her room.

Scene 16 (Hong Kong, later — Bai Ling story continues)

Chow as narrator explains that after Bai Ling moved out of the room, she began dating Dabao while he sees other women and, whenever they ran into each other in public, they pretended not to know each other. Still, she appears sometimes in his stories (shows a still of her in what looks like perhaps futuristic clothing).

Scene 17 (Hong Kong sometime later, and six years since the beginning of the affair between Wang and the Japanese businessman — Wang Jing Wen story resumes)

Wang Jing Wen, the daughter of the landlord and the woman who more or less lost her mind when she was prevented from seeing her Japanese lover, moves back into the 2046, now that Bai Ling is gone. She is carrying on secret correspondence with her Japanese lover. Her father discovers this and scolds her loudly. Chow offers to have her lover's letters come to him instead and he will secretly pass them on to her. He does this several times. In the letters, the Japanese lover continues to ask whether she cares for him or not.

Scene 18 (Hong Kong, sometime later, and mostly summertime — Wang Jing Wen story continues)

Wang Jing Wen suggests to Chow that he write something besides erotic fiction, like perhaps a martial arts novel. He says that is too difficult. She shows him her fiction writing, which she does for fun. He reads it and decides she is very skilled. Soon she is working as his assistant on a marital arts novel. She ghost writes when he can't finish drafts on his own or in time. He describes this as his happiest summer ever.

Scene 19 (Hong Kong then futuristic train — Wang Jing Wen story continues in both its Hong Kong form and its android form)

Chow helps Wang Jing Wen get some independence from her father by finding her a job in a cloakroom. He sometimes picks her up after work. He narrates how feelings can creep up on someone and he wonders if she knows that. He beings to write a story for her that would explain how her boyfriend feels but in the process of writing this story, now called "2046", he ends up writing more about himself, imagining himself as a Japanese man on a long train ride trying to leave 2046, and Wang Jing Wen as an android with "delayed reaction" to her emotions. The concierge on the train (the landlord of the hotel in Hong Kong) warns "Tak" not to fall in love with the androids that are there to help make his long time on the train bearable.

Scene 20 (Futuristic train — Wang Jing Wen as android story continues)

In the train manual, it is written that sections 1224-1225 (in scene 23 we will be told that this number means "Christmas Eve and Christmas day") of the train are especially cold and so one should hug one's fellow passengers to stay warm. Tak is alone on the train so he hugs his android and begins to love the android that looks like Wang Jing Wen. He tries to tell her his secret (she says she will be the hole in the tree he can speak into) but she keeps moving her hand (the forefinger and thumb have made an "O" shape) away from his lips when he tries to speak. She leads him to her lips and he begins kissing her passionately.

Scene 21 (Futuristic train "ten hours later" — Wang Jing Wen as android story continues)

The first scene shows the Wang Jing Wen android responding erotically and romantically to Tak's affection— but ten hours later, when she is alone.

The concierge explains to Tak that the one problem with the androids is that after many long trips they begin to tire and their reactions slow down. He advises that Tak should give up his relationship with his android. Tak refuses and tries telling the Wang Jing Wen android his secret over and over, then tries telling the concierge, then tries telling the Lulu android (which makes the Wang Jing Wen android secretly sad, it seems). Tak then begins to doubt himself and think that perhaps her lack of reaction is not that she is slow in reacting but rather that she doesn't love him. He resolves, tearfully, to give up.

Scene 22 (Hong Kong, Dec 24 1968 — Wang Jing Wen story continues)

Chow is getting ready for the evening in exactly the same was as in Scene 9. (Music: "Chestnuts roasting on a open fire ...")

Chow takes Wang Jing Wen out for dinner on Christmas eve and encourages her to find her boyfriend.

Scene 23 (Hong Kong, Dec 24 1968, then on the futuristic train — Wang Jing Wen story continues)

She takes her to his newspaper office and lets her make a long distance call. She looks so happy and Chow, watching her happiness, feels happy, too.

"10 hours later"

The Wang Jing Wen android is looking out a window, lonely. The narrator says that he understands it is not because the is tired or doesn't love him but because she already loved someone else. (This comment might be about Tak or might be about Chow.) He continues that now Wang Jing Wen went to Japan and that he sent with him his story "2047" and hopes that she reads it. (This comment is about the real Wang and Chow.)

"100 hours later"

The Wang Jing Wen android is looking out the same window.

"1000 hours later"

The Wang Jing Wen android is looking out the same window.

The narrator says of himself that he understands love is all about timing and that his story (could be Tak's story, could be Chow's story) would have ended differently if he was in a different time or place. There are short scenes in this voice over that show the two of them on top of the hotel and a short of her profile, perhaps somehow or somewhat happy, perhaps slightly smiling, or not.

This scene uses primarily the opera aria that has been associated with Wang Jing Wen.