loved the first half, hated the second
Am I the only one who felt this way? The first half felt moody, intriguing, poetic, and philosophical without coming off too pretentious. The second half however, bored me to tears.
The thing I've found I dislike most about Wong Kar-Wai's films, is the overbearing amount of philosophical dialogue in ordinary day scenes. It comes off so pretentious to underline every conversation with some sort of philosophical debate. Like the way Tony Leung's character argues whether he should keep buying chef's salad for his girlfriend, or should he try something else? Like come on, man, it's just a fucking salad!
I'm fine with philosophical dialogue every once in a while, but having it go and on for every scene is just annoying. I also couldn't stand Faye Wong's character, as she comes off like the stereotypical manic pixie dream girl archetype we've seen a thousand times by now. She never once came off feeling like a real person to me. It felt like everything she did and said was meant to come off cute, and in doing so, the film lost me as I never once cared for her. When she got caught snooping around the cop's home, I honestly was rooting for him to kill her! That's how much I disliked the character. This portion of the film is also way too repetitive with its continuous use of California Dreaming in the soundtrack, as well as repeated scenes of Tony Leung talking to inanimate objects in his apartment.
Like I said, I enjoyed the first half of the film quite a bit, but I really wish the movie either followed through with that plot, or just ended right there. The second story was incredibly boring and repetitive.
Anyone else agree?