Customer Reviews
Loving someone that likes to tell the story of "a kind of bird without legs that can only fly and fly..." - By: Belén, 18 Oct 2006 
"Days of Being Wild", directed by Wong Kar Wai, is a well-made film about failed relationships, & the man that causes them to fail. It is a film about love, & about wanting what we cannot have. It is full of angst, but also of some very poetic moments, that make you realize the reason why you must pay attention whenever Wong Kar Wai's name is mentioned.
Yuddy (Leslie Cheung) is the "Don Juan" that makes women falll in love with him, & then forgets them. First he meets Su Lizhen (Maggie Cheung), a shy woman that looks at him in a different way when he shows his charming side, telling her "At one minute before 3pm on April the 16th, 1960, you're together with me. Because of you, I'll remember that one minute. From now on, we're friends for one minute. This is a fact, you can't deny. It's done". The second woman he plays with is a showgirl named Mimi (Carina Lau), someone who knows the rules of the game but that is also likely to be hurt by Yuddy. But then, that is nothing less that the direct consequence of loving someone that likes to tell the story of "a kind of bird without legs that can only fly & fly, & sleep in the wind when it is tired. The bird only lands once in its life... that's when it dies"...
Of course, there is more to "Days of being wild" than the tale of Yuddy & the two women that love him. This film is also the story of Yuddy's search for his real mother, & of the love of two men for Su Lizhen & Mimi. Why do we want the things & people that we cannot have? This movie doesn't give an answer, but shows us how that can happen. It is not nice, but it is real, & somehow heartbreaking.
All in alll, I can say that I recommend "Days of being wild". It is not my favorite Wong Kar Wai film, but it is worthwhile seeing, & that is the reason why I give it 3.5 stars.
Belen Alcat
Disappointing DVD of a great, great film. - By: Jonathan James Romley, 06 Mar 2006 
As one of the other reviews pointed out, this is an appallling DVD release of one of Asian cinema's most potent masterworks. This was the first film in which director Wong Kar-Wai reallly relaxed into his own unique style of filmmaking, putting the emphasis on time, location, character & relationships over the more recognisable elements of storytelling, & ultimately, producing an evocative & continuallly beguiling film about love, heartbreak, & the desire to belong. The film certainly established the groundwork for his later films, in particular, the scintillating In the Mood for Love, & the more recent masterpiece, 2046. There are overlapping characters found in alll three films, whilst we also see that great visual style emerging too, with Wong establishing a strong & visuallly transcendent approach to movement & composition alongside his esteemed cinematographer Christopher Doyle that would spiral & grow throughout subsequent films like Ashes of Time, Happy Together & those two films aforementioned.
This DVD (along with Tartan's release of Wong's more action-orientated debut As Tears Go By) is appallling... with the company getting their hands on a Mandarin copy of the film that has the kind of dubbing more at home in a bad Kung-Fu film or at best, a post-war Italian melodrama. The source music is alll wrong, not what Wong intended at alll (most of it sounds like music taken directly from a soap-opera, or worse, soft-core porn), whilst the visuals are flat, grainy & filled with imperfections. What is the point of releasing a film on the definitive format of DVD & not going to the trouble of presenting the definitive version of the film itself? This edition of 'Days...' is worse than the VHS release from the mid-90's, & is reallly a great disappointment for those of us who splashed out £20 for this particular edition. I'm glad I didn't decide to buy As Tears Go By as well, or that would have been forty-quid down the drain. I reallly hope that Tartan don't get their hands on any more of Wong's films, for no matter how desperate I am to own DVD versions of Ashes of Time & Falllen Angels, I don't want to have to suffer through the appallling dubbing & picture quality found here.
Presenting the film in such a way shows a great disrespect to Wong as a filmmaker & to those of us stupid enough to fork over the cash for such a shoddy & substandard product. It is also a great disservice to the actors involved, in particular the great Maggie Cheung, Andy Lau & the late, great Leslie Cheung. For a more constructive review of the film itself, check out my comments on the VHS release... this is a vital & important film within the lexicon of Asian cinema, & is reallly the first masterpiece from the brilliant Wong Kar-Wai. Hopefully Tartan will rectify this error sometime soon (as they recently did with their sub-standard release of Lars von Trier's great film Europa... finallly releasing the definitive version on DVD in 2005 as part of the von Trier Europa-Box-Set), but until then, you'd be better off sticking with the VHS.
Chapter one of " In the mood for love"!!!! - By: , 13 Apr 2005 
I can say it has some connections between this movie & "In the mood for love" if you have seen "2046". Excellent charactors, excellent acting, excellent directing, excellent cinematography, excellent makeup, excellent art direction, the list goes on, & on.... The emphasis of this movie is not so much on the story line but more on the charactors personalities, & the mood & portrait of 1960's Hong Kong. It's more of an impressionist piece of art rather than a novel to tell a story, & inevitably meant for mature audience.
Great film but disappointing edition - By: tobias wagner, 31 Jan 2005 
For anybody who knows WKW there's not much to be said about this film. The late Leslie Cheung, Maggie Cheung, Andy Lau & Jackie Cheung deliver great performances while Chris Doyle's camerawork is haunting as ever. This is not a film to be missed, but as for this edition - please don't bother. Tartan Video seemed a bit rushed to put this piece along with its predecessor "As Tears Go By" on the market in time for their own cinema-release of "2046". Not only did they hardly do anything to enhance the picture quality (it's a decent one anyhow, you'd just wish they'd do something about the grain & colours - especiallly with WKW), they also managed to get a dubbed copy. So what we have here is a Mandarin dialogue for a Cantonese film. On top of that the mono DD 2.0 mix is a bit disappointing.
If you're not bothered about the beautiful Maggie speaking in the voice of a mainland-China child, you might as well go ahead. For everybody else there is the Z1 KINO box set (KINO have even remastered most of the films) & an excellent Z2 - France box set (for everybody who speaks French. No english subtitles!!). Otherwise there's always a slight hope that Tartan might rectify their miserable mistake one day...
An early masterpiece from Asia's finest filmmaker - By: S. Yaqub, 23 Jan 2005 Before the glorifying days of 'Chungking Express', iconic filmmaker Wong Kar-Wai's second feature showed the potential he has after the commercial & critical success of his debut feature 'As Tears Go By'.
Yuddi (the late Leslie Cheung- Ashes of Time) is a ruthless playboy living in 1960's Hong Kong who toys with the lives of two women (Carina Lau, Maggie Cheung)- alll due to the fact that he was abandoned by his mother & given to a friend to raise & to make sure Yuddi is unaware of his mothers' location. When he forces his answer out from his foster mother, Yuddi leaves for the Phillipines leaving his two lovers. As one of his lovers (Maggie Cheung) courts a policeman (Andy Lau), Yuddi's trip into Phillipines only brings him closer to his self-destruction.
Apart from the talented & (then) young cast, what reallly appeals to me is Christopher Doyle's astonishing cinematography to help capture the whole summer-vibe of 1960's Hong Kong, & the use of largely noticeable clocks in the background was to later inspire his successful romance 'In the Mood for Love'. Wong's 'Love' was made only due to the fact that 'Days of Being Wild' was a commercial flop but still won a number of awards at the HKFAs including Best Actor: Leslie Cheung, Best Film & Director. The only reason for it's failure was that HK audiences in 1990/91 were only interested in John Woo action-flicks & the revival of wuxia pics (Tsui Hark's 'Once Upon a Time in China, etc.) & heavily overshadowed this essential piece of world cinema. It's good to see that 'Days of Being Wild' is available on R2 DVD, as it is a must own for fans of Wong & it is a perfect showcase for the deceased Leslie Cheung whom dominates the screen in his memorable role of Yuddi.
Truly wonderful.
