2046 — Fourth session questions and scene summaries

Questions for the fourth 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(4)-1. Timelines: Time in The Tale of Genji is, to my mind, mostly a state of suspended waiting and longing. Events rearrange the furniture but this seems to be the primary mode of time in the work. The future exists as an anxiety; the past exists as a reference to longing. Genji and Murasaki age in this context, creating a very interesting timeline dynamic. Time in Chunhyang seems linear and oriented towards a specific outcome / endstate. Time in Story of the Stone (over the five volumes) is the temporary flowering, then fading, of the garden in the middle of an estate in decline and, eventually, Baoyu's return to his immortal state. As far as our films go, Flying Daggers seems linear to me—a story unfolds. But Dolls seems to share The Tale of Genji's sense of suspension, as does 3-Iron and, to some degree Segment Two (1911) of Three Times. Here in 2046, at the level of characters, the androids seem to be in a similar state of suspension but in Chow's world of the 1960s we have fairly extreme non-linearity, making it difficult to know who is who and who is longing for whom. Given these things, I have two questions for you. First, what qualities does non-linearity bring to the romantic stories in this film? Second, is this non-linearity "Asian" in any way, or not? And, if so, in what way and why? Tough questions.

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

TWENTY(4)-2. Compare how deception (defined as "not saying what is really on your mind") functions within the romantic narratives of Flying Daggers and 2046. What does this say about the differences of romantic narrative in the two films?

TWENTY(4)-3. Compare how "layering" functions within the romantic narratives of Flying Daggers and 2046. Does it have the same function, or a different one, or both? Explain. (By layering in Flying Daggers I mean: Jin pretends to be Wind, Leo is a double agent, Mei pretends to be a courtesan, then pretends to be a vengeful agent of the Flying Daggers acting on her own, but actually is following a command. By layering in 2046 I mean: Lulu + the silver-haired android, Wang Jing Wen + the black-haired android, Chow + Tak on the train, Su Li-Zhen2 "Black Spider" + Su-Li-Zhen1/Chow's original love in the prior two movies of the trilogy.)

III. INCLUDE ONE of the below on your written submission. By "place" you are to consider the basic three angles we discuss, namely, to what degree present or absent, to what degree altered, to what degree accepted or resisted—and any of these could be done explicitly, implicitly or unconsciously. (Always include question number and question content.)

TWENTY(4)-4. Summary analysis: the place of traditional, core romantic values ("one should ...") in this film.

TWENTY(4)-5. Summary analysis: the place of traditional, core romantic worldviews (interpretive contexts) in this film.

Scene summaries — DVD menu scenes 24-28/END (1:36:34-2:08:00, elapsed time 0:32)

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 24 (Hong Kong then flashbacks, Singapore and elsewhere — Lulu story, and others)

Wang Jie Wen has moved into 2046. The landlord is leaving for Japan because Want Jing Wen is getting married. Chow is visibly shaken when he hears this news. There is a message from Wang Jing Wen: she has read "2047" and likes it a lot but feels the ending is too sad and wants him to change it.

Chow tries, with the pen hovering over the manuscript. One hour later he is still trying. Ten hours later. One hundred hours later. He says he wants it to have a happy ending but he let a happy ending in his life slip away once. (Cut to scene in taxi filmed in black and white, similar to the earlier taxi scene but with a different woman—Su Li-Zhen from In the Mood for Love.)

Returns to Lulu story and how she was jealous, fighting with another woman who slept with the man she was in love with. It was a time when Chow was very depressed, he says, and that he learned watching her that if you don't take no for an answer sometimes you get what you want. (Shows Android Lulu on train, feigning a smile after crying.)

Scene 25 (Hong Kong 18 months later, 1970 — Bail Ling story)

Bai Ling returns to ask Chow to speak on her behalf for a job she wants in Singapore as a call girl. They drink and talk together in a desultory way. She says she dropped by at Christmas hoping to see him. (In fact he was not in Hong Kong during Christmas, he tells us.) She said she missed him. He said of course because they are "drinking pals", a comment that seems to hurt her privately. She leaves first. She is not looking well.

Scene 26 (Singapore, Christmas Eve 1969 and Singapore around 1963 or shortly afterwards — Su Li-Zhen/Black Spider story)

Chow had gone to Singapore at Christmas because he did not want to be in Hong Kong for Christmas. He looked for Miss Su (Black Spider) but no one knows where she is. She might have returned to Phnom Penh, she might be dead.

We learn that Ping and he had started to work in Singapore in 1963. Chow was gambling and a woman named Black Spider, a professional gambler from Phnom Penh who always wears a black glove on her left hand, helped him. After she succeeds in winning his money back for him, when she is leaving, he asks her name and learns that it is Su Li-Zhen. He explains that he fell in love with another man's wife many years ago and, a woman with the same name.

Chow begins to tell the current Su about his past love Su. They moved into a room together with the number 2046. But when he asks Su to tell him her past, they play the hi-lo card game which she wins (with the same Ace of Spades that she wins with at the beginning of the movie).

Scene 27 (Singapore, a few minutes before Scene 2 — Su Li-Zhen/Black Spider story)

Chow is ready to say good-bye to Su Li-Zhen. He asks her to come with him but she says that he had promised not to ask that question. He kisses her and says for her to come look for him if she escapes her past. He walks away and she cries once he is out of sight.

He says that he later realizes that comment was meant for himself, and that he had tried to recover his love for the original Su Li-Zhen and now understands that there can be no substitutes.

Scene 28 (Hong Kong sometime shortly after Scene 25, 1970 — Bai Ling story)

On screen poem: When the peony blooms / She stands tall / Then goes away / Does she mean "no" or "yes"?

Chow and Bai Ling are meeting at the same bar as before. She has bought $5000 dollars for him to pay for the plane ticket to Singapore he bought for her, we learn, and for her rent. She asked for the money from an older patron of her, the night before. He refuses the money. But she pays for dinner.

He walks her to her hotel room. She leaves the next day. He says he will take her to the airport but she says she would be too sad. She invites him in, asking why things can't be the way they were. He answers that there is one thing he will never lend to anyone, and walks away.

He says that he never saw her again.

On screen: "He didn't turned back. It was as if he had boarded a very long train heading for a drowsy future through the unfathomable night."

Voice over (with Chow alone in a taxi): Everyone goes to 2046 to regain lost memories because in 2046 nothing changes except that no one knows for sure because no one has returned from 2046.