Happy Together (dir Wong Kar-Wai, Hong Kong 1997)

Acting Serious, Living Rationally, Thinking Gay

Next appearing in The Duchess of Malfi at the Greenwich Playhouse, London

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(春光乍洩 / 春光乍泄; Chūn Guāng Zhà Xiè)

January 2011: Director Wong Kar-Wai’s Happy Together is an early (1997) example of a Chinese film focusing on gay men. Yiu-fai (Tony Leung) and Po-wing (Leslie Cheung) are a young couple from Hong Kong who, at the beginning of the film, have ended up broke in Buenos Aires, Argentina. While they dream of driving to Iguazu Falls together – both a real tourist destination and a symbol of a utopian freedom – the pressures of scraping a living in the city are gradually grinding them down and driving them apart.

Yiu-fai is the older, realistic partner – the one who finds work first as a tout for a seedy bar luring tourists seeking the “authentic” Argentinian tango, then as a cook in a Chinese restaurant – while Po-Wing is younger, falling back on his looks to hustle men who keep him supplied in alcohol and tobacco. Home for both is a seedy room in an anonymous apartment block, sharing a toilet and kitchen with locals who also bicker and squabble.

There is little plot. The two argue and fight, separate, come together and separate again. Yiu-fai tries to wean Po-Wing off alcohol; Po-Wing falls off the wagon. Time passes. At work Yiu-fai begins a guarded friendship with Chang (Chen Chang) from Taiwan, and slowly he pulls together enough money to take him home, while Po-Wing disappears from his life.

There is little in this film to be happy about. Even the opening scene, where the two men have sex – probably for the last time – the smiles are weak and the intercourse brief and without passion. The first time I saw it, shortly after it was released, I was put off by the relentlessly downboat mood, by the claustrophobic atmosphere (scenes are shot at night, in their grimy room, in the windowless shared kitchen, in the Chinese restaurant), by Yiu-fai’s grim expression as he works to maintain himself and his feckless lover, by Po-wing’s descent into alcoholism.

But year after year Happy Together remained in my mind until I finally bought the dvd. Even then it sat unopened on my shelves for several years before the Other Half finally said “let’s watch it”. Knowing his preference for light-hearted films, I warned him that the title was ironic. Never mind he said, put it on. So I did, and this time I was drawn in by the depths of the story and the

Leslie Cheung was the first successful Hong Kong actor to admit that he was bisexual; after his sucide in 2003 the man he had called his “most beloved” was recognised by his family as his “spouse”.

impressive performances from all three actors. Even the Other Half – whose speed with the remote is legendary when there is something on the screen that bores him – was held by the characters and the unfolding of their lives.

Forty years ago, gay activists would have bundled Happy Together with such films as The Boys in the Band (USA, 1970) as evidence that gay couples in films are unable to maintain firm relationships and are doomed to destruction through fighting, addiction and infidelity. By 1997, however, mature audiences were aware that this was a portrait not of all gay men, but of two individuals in specific circumstances, two individuals who in different circumstances might have overcome the differences between them and forged a long-term loving relationship.

So, watch this film not for a crash course in perfect gay relationships, but to watch a master director at work, to see two outstanding actors in difficult roles, to learn something about the human condition and to see a realistic portrait of two men who were once in love when it all goes wrong.

marks out of 10: social interest: 8 gay interest: 9 film quality: 8
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