Happy Together review

Shot just before the hand-over of Hong Kong, Happy Together is a tale of pained partings and attempted fresh starts. Lai Yiu-Fai (Tony Leung) and Ho Po-Wing (Leslie Cheung) are two gay Hong Kong men who go to Buenos Aires to renew their relationship, only to find it falling further apart. After they split up, Lai wants to return to Hong Kong alone, but Ho turns up at his room, bruised, bleeding and desperate to start all over again. It's a film of immense sadness, shot through with feelings of regret, frustration and heartbreak. The melancholy tango music that pervades the film is sublime, and Chris Doyle's cinematography, especially of the Iguazu waterfalls, is intoxicating. The ending, aboard a speeding monorail train in Taipei and to the accompaniment of the title song, truly uplifts.