Happy Together (1997)

Director: Wong Kar-Wai

This is a story of two people who are, contrary to the title, mostly not very happy together. These two men are in what we would call an abusive relationship. They hurt each other and many times can't stand each other, but they simultaneously need each other as well because without each other they become lonely and end up in a downwards spiral. The film presents their relationship in a very brutal and raw way, director Wong Kar-Wai doesn't hold anything back and never refrains from showing us how emotionally abusive, and sometimes physically abusive, this relationship is. But they still come back together and attempt to start over, and that dynamic is a fascinatingly complex one. It sheds a lot of light on why some people either take a long time to leave an abusive relationship or never leave one at all.

As you can imagine, the movie can be extremely depressing at times, in my opinion sometimes even too depressing than it really needs to be. The lack of joy and the constant misery is really what keeps the movie from being great. While I really like what the movie accomplishes, it doesn't quite have enough dynamism to make me feel like this is anything more than just an exceptionally well-made single issue film (mostly a nit-pick). The movie might be called Happy Together but it's anything but happy. But Wong brings energy to the movie via his cinematography and editing which varies quite a lot during the movie, always seemingly mirroring the emotions of the men in the relationship. In the beginning when the two have broken up the film is black-and-white, but later when they decide to start over color comes in and the cinematography becomes more jagged showing the excitement that is renewed in their lives, though excitement doesn't necessarily mean happiness.

Grade: B+