Onto the last second week of september! Well it simply means that the O levels are drawing nigh, especially after the prelims. Prelims had been a great headache for myself and everyone I guess. I haven’t prepared for this as much as I did for the mid-years (I’d started 3 weeks in advance and studied much more) and what I did was extremely last minute. The earliest I mugged a subject was two days before the actual paper, I think. Managing the whole lot of unfamiliar info and trying to stuff them all into my head over a night was disasterous. Firstly I’d been very tired throughout the two weeks of prelims and my napping sessions usually overshoot by hours, which means I could sleep for 6 hours straight and wake up in the night to find myself in trouble because I never liked studying past 2am.
Many of the subjects were OKAY, but not too OKAY as well. Especially when I have to rush my art over a weekend: research, sketches, devt, artist reference, layout and labellings. It just doesn’t make sense when the computer refuses to boot while the laptop takes half an hour to open a programme, or just an internet explorer window. Fortunately I’d managed the digital layout before this weird thing happened so I could get Tanchun to print everything and bring it on the day of the art exam, which was the wednesday that just passed. Oh, out of the 6 given topics, I chose “Flight of…” and entitled my piece “Flight of a Lifetime” in relation to my older digital manip and also to the award-winning film ?????? ?”Days of Being Wild” (1990) by Wong Kar-Wai.
This is a film starring Leslie as the suave and confident Yuddy (??) and other complementing characters like Su Lizhen (Maggie Cheung), the bargirl (Carina Lau), Yuddy’s buddy (Jacky Cheung), the Policeman (Andy Cow) and finally the anon character that appears for 3 minutes just before the film ends (Tony Leung). The number of times I’ve watched this movie is about 3 only; two times in mandarin(dubbed of course) and the third on the plane to Hong Kong in April this year. When I viewed it again just a few days ago to get screenshots for my art research, it suddenly struck me so loudly that it is indeed an excellent film. In the past I didn’t exactly think of it as a favourite movie partly because WKW’s style and irregular pace was so unpredictable. But since I watched it again, I had a sudden liking for it, especially the scenes where Yuddy speaks with his mother, a retired courtesan.
Their relationship hasn’t been too good from the beginning because of the fact that Yuddy is an adopted child and she doesn’t intend to tell him where his biological parents are. Yuddy is sore and especially spiteful over this matter and has since been yearning to leave, in other words “fly” on his own. Yuddy goes on in conflict with her and in a particular conversation, his foster mother says, “So, you reallly wish to fly? Sure, go ahead. Go as far as you can, but don’t let me know that in the end you’re only deceiving yourself.“
Yuddy, as an amoral and disillusioned lad, is kept in luxury and leads a carefree life particularly because the story is set in 1960 where life was backwater and going at a slow pace.
Self-obsessed, he plays around and treats his women lovers carelessly.
At the very beginning of the film, an old-fashioned clock shows the time at about 3pm.
Yuddy meets Su Lizhen, a store keeper, and boldly flirts with her at first sight with unwavering confidence. He requests her to stop and look at his watch for a full minute.
Yuddy: What day’s today?
Su Lizhen: 16th.
Yuddy: 16th. On 16th April 1960, one minute before 3pm, you are with me. Because of you, I’ll remember that one minute. From now on, we’re friends of one minute. This is a fact, you can’t deny it. ‘Cause it’s past.
Sure enough, only Yuddy has the attraction and dangerously ravishing deportment to trap women and sweep them off their feet.
Well in this case he even predicted Su Lizhen lost sleep over him when she answered, “I didn’t dream of you last night.” in response to his statement the previous day they met. This is where the famous “One Minute Friendship” is derived from.
Yuddy gets along with the bargirl Mimi soon after and leaves Su Lizhen to survive on her own. At this point of time his buddy comes into the story as well as the policeman who gets to know Su Lizhen on his nightly patrol. As the plot progresses, Yuddy’s mother decides to leave with her lover to a foreign country and promises him to send money over if he chooses not to follow. “You always wanted to keep me, so now I won’t let you go. You shouldn’t have let me know I’m adopted. Everything will then be perfect. You tell me something, and then hide the rest… I just want to know who my parents are…”
She decides to reveal to him the truth just before she leaves; his biological parents are in the Philippines. It is quite regrettable to find his mother’s reluctance to actually let him go. While Yuddy puts up a nonchalant front, I believe he’s also somewhat stricken on the inside.
Entrusting his car to his buddy, Yuddy leaves for the Philippines and sets out to search for his biological parents. It is 12 April 1961. On entering the huge mansion, he is told that they are not at home. Which obviously means they do not want to see him. One scene deeply etched in my mind is this:
Yuddy stalks away with his back to the camera along a path between tall trees and greenery. He says something like, “…but I could feel a pair of eyes watching me as I leave. I could tell they didn’t want to see me. Since they wouldn’t give me a chance, neither will I give them any.” The denied truth has indeed destroyed Yuddy.
He continues his aimless journey in the Philippines and comes across the policeman (or sailor?? sorry I didn’t take note of Cow’s character) who brings him back to his own accomodation, a rundown hotel, when he was lying on the street in a drunken stupour. Some days later Yuddy arranges for an illegal passport to be made by members of the mafia at a train station. A fight erupts shortly after Yuddy stabs one of them while discussing the terms in a small room. Yuddy and his friend manage to escape by the station roof and settle in a train towards some unknown destination.
Here, Yuddy knows of Su Lizhen’s acquaintance with this man and hopes for her to forget him so that things does not complicate any further. His friend blames him for the fight incident and for implicating him (he got a cut on his left arm). “Fly, if you have such ability!” Perfectly solemn, Yuddy replies, “There will be an opportunity. But don’t look down on yourself when this day comes.”
The entire theme of the story to “Days of Being Wild” is basically on “flight” and how this Yuddy character endeavours to take flight into an uncertain future. I must say that the ending is unexpected; he is shot by a mafia member who finds him in his cabin and left to suffer. This is exactly a semblance to the story of the legless bird Yuddy tells: There is a kind of bird in this world that has no legs. It can only keep flying, until it is tired, then will it sleep in the wind. This bird only lands once in its entire lifetime; it is the time when it dies. He has broken his wings and begins to descend until he finally lands on the cold, hard ground. Lifeless.
Honestly, I’m glad to have learnt to appreciate such a film. Not to mention there is a certain scene that no doubt had contributed to Leslie’s “Hong Kong’s Best Male Actor” award in 1990 and that we all love so much; it is the scene in Yuddy’s room where he activates the record player and dances his infamous (and favourite I guess) cha-cha in front of the full length mirror. Self-absorbed, Yuddy is clad in plain white singlet and shorts while he displays his marvellous dancing skills as though there are no cares in this transpired era – the 1960s – of timelessness.
From a personal perspective, Leslie has effortlessly acted out the character Yuddy to life and overall the portrayed emotions, so complex and disturbing, along with the morbid cinematography of Christopher Doyle and the complementing music effectively impact the audience. Thereby, I highly recommend this film because Leslie’s performance will definitely captivate a part of you.
Now, when I look the scrollbar, I then realise I’ve transformed my entry into a movie review lol. Forgive me if you have had a headache. But well, don’t, because I intended for you to read that ;) If you will ever watch this movie, hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I do!
-9.10pm
At the magazine section, I caught sight of a mag with MatsuJun on the coverpage, which turns out to be the one I decided to purchase. $19 frigging dollars :S But chotto matte while I sidetrack for a bit: Adeline was telling me about this Jap magazine an.an for women which features a male celebrity annually in some very revealing photoshoot (and everything’s about sex); Hiroki Narimiya was featured last year… next in line is MATSUJUN! *OMG* My jaw literally DROPPED when the pics loaded. OMG MatsuJun quite naked in that kind of photoshoot with that model? Sexy! But after a while I found it rather disturbing. It’s way too much to handle, haha. Get your clothes back on please, Domyoji Tsukasa. 
