They kissed and hit each other in what was probably the most beautiful film of 1997: a quarter of a century ago, the love drama “Happy Together” was released in cinemas, in which a gay couple (Leslie Cheung and Tony Leung) leave their home country of Hong Kong and try to have a relationship in Buenos Aires new beginning. But they take their problems with them, the two men are fundamentally different, their adopted country of Argentina remains foreign to them. One of them even takes a job at a slaughterhouse, where he works nights and sleeps during the day. So he can continue to live “in the Hong Kong era,” he says. In the film by master director Wong Kar-wai, which premiered at the Cannes Festival, a lot revolves around Hong Kong anyway – even if tango is danced and Spanish spoken on the streets.
But of course it is no coincidence that the film was released in the very year in which the end of the Hong Kong crown colony was sealed: in 1997 sovereignty was handed over to China – and the director (“Chungking Express”), who was celebrated for his Hong Kong ballads ) shot outside of his homeland for the first time. Wong Kar-wai said in an interview that he thought he could get away from questions about Hong Kong’s future on the other side of the world. But he couldn’t, the further away he went, the more he longed to be back. So “Happy Together” remains a pipe dream, while the eponymous classic song from the 1960s says: “Imagine how the world could be, so very fine, so happy together”.
Happy Together, HK 1997, directed by Wong Kar-wai, Mon Aug 29, 9:15 p.m. city cinema, Sonnenstr. 12a