Days of Being Wild

Chinese: 阿飛正傳

Year: 1990 Director: Wong Kar-Wai

Producer: Rover Tang, Alan Tang Kwong-Wing

Cast: Leslie Cheung Kwok-Wing, Andy Lau Tak-Wah, Maggie Cheung Man-Yuk, Carina Lau Ka-Ling, Jacky Cheung Hok-Yau, Rebecca Pan, Tony Leung Chiu-Wai

Synopsis:

It’s is a 1990 Hong Kong picture directed by Wong Kar wai. The movie stars a number of the actresses and best known actors in Hong Kong, including Carina Lau, Leslie Cheung, Maggie Cheung, and Andy Lau. Days to Be Wild also marks the first cooperation between Wong and cinematographer Christopher Doyle, with whom he has since made eight pictures.
The film forms the initial part of an informal trilogy, jointly with In the Mood for Love (released in 2000) and 2046 (released in 2004), but the connection isn’t really there.
Most sections of the film attempt to narrate how individuals respond to rejection, even though it was too vaguely depicted. This picture was seen to be one of the first of its own genre popularised by Wong Kar wai, it generally does not rely on a plot but more on the individual strengths of its many actors and actresses to narrate the story through their seemingly routine day-to-day activities.

Days of Being Wild broke from the light fare that typified Hong Kong film at that time by introducing a art-house aesthetic and thematic vagueness.

Set in 1960, the film centres on the young, boyishly handsome Yuddy, who learns from the drunken ex – hooker who raised him that she isn’t his real mom. Expecting to hold onto him, she will not divulge the name of his own actual birth mother. The revelation shakes Yuddy to his very core, unleashing a cascade of contradictory emotions. Two women possess the ill luck to fall for Yuddy. One is actually a quiet lass named Su Lizhen who works at a sports arena, whilst the other is really a glitzy showgirl named Mimi. Perhaps on account of his unresolved Oedipal issues, he passively allows the two contend for him, unable or reluctant to make a choice. He falls for her, as Lizhen slowly confides her defeat to a policeman named Tide. The same is true for Yuddy’s friend Zeb, who falls for Mimi. Later, Yuddy learns of his birth mother’s location and heads out to the Philippines.

Source: MyAsianCinema

Awards:

10th Annual HK Film Awards
• Winner – Best Picture
• Winner – Best Director (Wong Kar-Wai)
• Winner – Best Actor (Leslie Cheung)
• Winner – Best Cinematography (Christopher Doyle)
• Winner – Best Art Direction (William Cheung Suk-Ping)
• Nomination – Best Actress (Carina Lau Ka-Ling)
• Nomination – Best Supporting Actress (Rebecca Pan)
• Nomination – Best Screenplay (Wong Kar-Wai)
• Nomination – Best Editing (Patrick Tam Ka-Ming)