Happy Together

Happy Together

Drama/Romance

Director: Wong Kai-Wai

Run Time: 1 hr 39 min

1997

Wong Kai-Wai’s Happy Together (1997) speaks of relationships between people as friends and lovers–Po, Fai and Chang. Colours, compositions and setting play an important role in portraying these relationships.

The film has a happy ending for all three of the main characters of the film. Having Po and Fai breakup at the end and move on gave the audience the most hope in the entire film. Fai is finally able to move on from Po and the toxic relationship they shared. Despite the depressive moments that he faced after Po left, Fai was able to understand that their relationship didn't have much meaning for it to continue. On the contrary, Po had a happy ending but one that he is still unaware of. In the concluding scenes, we see him enduring the loss of what could have been a really good relationship if he hadn't misused it. He is still in the recovery stages as he brings himself to the apartment that Fai lived in and reminisces their good times. Po will come out much stronger when he engages himself in another relationship after Fai. Chang is the happiest character of all three. He balances out the film as his character is free from all burdens. His concluding scene takes place at the lighthouse where he releases Fai’s sorrows. Fai's visit to the family dumpling shop establishes that Chang has a supporting family and backup after he returns from his endeavours.

The setting of Fai’s apartment has a striking resemblance to the painting Bedroom in Arles by Vincent Van Gogh. Ironically, Van Gogh claimed that the painting was produced at a time when he was unwell for a long duration of time; similar to the storyline of the film where the apartment setting is developed in the process of Po’s healing. The colours of both works of art are highly saturated. The saturation in their apartment setting symbolizes their relationship status. We can analyze this such that the saturation causes their day to day objects in the setting to be visible in the sense that we get a general idea that its an object but can never fully grasp the characteristics of the objects. In the same way, their relationship is highly saturated. They only see physical attraction which exists at the surface level without ever being able to understand the true meanings and details of what a relationship should be–understanding and accepting each others’ good and bad qualities instead of constantly bickering.

The tango music of the film mirrors their relationship as well. The tango is about attempting for dominance over each other. It is a conflicting type of dance as it requires teamwork yet attempts at one conquering the dance over the other. In Fai and Po’s relationship, Po tries to gain control by sexually instigating Fai and repeatedly wanting to start over. In instances like where he drags Po for a walk or requires cooking from him despite the fact that he sick or when he wants Fai to have sex with him even if he doesn't want, all make us believe that Po is trying to gain dominance. On the other hand, we see this idea of dominance reciprocate when Fai takes Po’s passport and keeps it with him, or when he goes out and buys many packs of cigarettes at once so that Po doesn’t have to leave; all ensure that the Tango music references their bickering relationship.

I think that the film is very similar to Moonlight by Barry Jenkins. Having been released before Moonlight, it talks about similar issues of the problems encountered in various relationships and the setting becomes a key element in these factors. In Moonlight, LA never felt like home to him despite the fact that it actually had been. He always felt isolated within his environment because he never received any kind of love or acceptance from his mother or his peers, with the exception of Kevin. Fai and Po had acceptance physically but not emotionally, and having placed them in the foreign city of Argentina created further contrast about the idea of dislocation and isolation. However in Moonlight, Chiron forgives his mother versus in Happy Together, Fai is never forgiven by his dad, never resolving the relationship till the end.

3/5