Happy Together (1997)
Directed by Wong Kar-Wai

Tidying up my room, I came across a sketchpad. I tried my hand at drawing during the height of the pandemic, so I privately parsed through the pages to laugh at some ridiculous sketches. Flipping through, I was struck to find a journal entry. Titled “pieces of a puzzle, hand in a glove,” it detailed the activities I wanted to do with a former partner of mine. It featured a list of cities we wanted to visit, restaurants we’d go to when things reopened, sweeping promises, and cute gestures. The last few items on the list were to "take care of her when she's sick" and "BE THERE." Didn't get the chance to do either of those. Didn't get the chance to do most of the things on the list, tbh. I don’t write lists like that anymore.

I initially saw Happy Together early in my cinephilia, as most boys of a certain age tend to do. It’s rarely the first Wong Kar-Wai film we all watch – that’s usually reserved for In the Mood for Love or Chungking Express – and few heterosexual men I know will confess to say this is their favorite of his films. I don’t think it’s my favorite either, but the weight of new experiences, new relationships, new everything, heightened the melancholy that this film already possesses. Featuring the best Chinese actors of the past thirty years, Leslie Cheung and Tony Leung, the film involves two men who move to Argentina from Hong Kong. Early in their relationship they’re determined to make it to Iguazu Falls, only for the trip to be derailed out of petty frustration and practicality. The two stay in Argentina but go their separate ways, eking out a living, until they reconvene. One is the nurturer, the other you may suggest is taking advantage of the other. This time I’m not entirely sure. It seems to me that this is a film about a relationship between two flawed people that care deeply for one another but were not meant to be together. Sometimes you have to go it alone. Iguazu Falls feels like the end of the world; that is until you’re there. And even if it’s the sort of place that you expected to share with someone else, it’s ok that you didn’t – you’re probably better off for it.