What it’s about
At a sport stadium concession stand, strikingly handsome Yuddy (L. Cheung) catches the eye of shy, gorgeous attendant Su Lizhen (M. Cheung) and predicts with romantic self-confidence that she will always remember the exact moment of their meeting. Su falls in love with Yuddy, but he’s emotionally conflicted and unable to commit, haunted by the whereabouts of his nameless birth mother. When he takes up with sultry nightclub singer Mimi (Lau), Su is heartbroken…
Why we love it
Wong Kar-wai is a master of melancholic style and romantic longing, and in this spare, elegant film — one of his first features — he creates an atmosphere of blissful yearning. Yuddy searches in vain for his mother; Su pines for him and then almost connects with a well-meaning police officer (Andy Lau) who offers her comfort. Meanwhile, Yuddy’s childhood friend Zeb (Jacky Cheung) develops an unrequited interest in Su. This merry-go-round of misery might sound purely hopeless, but Wong infuses every frame with a gorgeous ache, punctuating the film with recurring train-window shots of the color-tinted Filipino landscape. A blue mood never felt so ecstatically realized.