Brokeback Mountain and Happy Together are 2 very different movies. The only similarity between this 2 movies is that both are about 2 men to love each other. Other than that, nothing is the same. So, they are incomparable.
shareAgree. Happy Together is my favourite film of all times. It is flawed in a perfect way, and their sexual orientation never appeared to be the main focus to me. Watching the film for many times, I become so attached to believe in it so much as if they are really existent and feel the pain every time... I'm sure everyone who's been hurt in love can feel that pain... the happiest time they had was when Bo Wing was injured... and the fear that he will leave Fai one day when he recovers... and Fai is left with nothing... We always had happy moments in life which seem too good to be true and to last for long... and the empty feeling fearing when it will be taken away from us and never be the same again... if you watched the documentry, Buenos Aires: Zero Degree... you will see in another possibility for an ending, Fai commits suicide. He said, why are you always the one who can leave? and leaves me with nothing?? Why am I always the one who is supposed to wait for you and helpless? You know what? For once it's going to be different. This time, I am leaving first... then he slits his neck...
On the other hand, Brokeback Mountain, would have been boring and *beep* if it weren't two gay men, which i know is important in the story line.... because that's a major part of why they cannot be together... but wait.. it was still pretty boring for me.. just very average and disappointing!
the thing is, Happy Together could have easily been a movie about a woman and a man instead of two men. Brokeback Mountain HAD to be about 2 men for plot purposes. When Hollywood makes a movie about 2 gay men who could just as easily been man and women, then they'll make a "groundbreaking" gay-themed film.
shareIt could have been about a woman and a man, and it would have been a similar film, but it would certainly not have been the same film. It's more because of subtleties in the relationship dynamics and situations though rather than explicit things like in Brokeback Mountain, but a Wong Kar-wai film is all about subtleties and mood and those kinds of things, which gives them more importance.
Some velvet morning when I'm straight...
I don't know if you could compare Brokeback Mountain because Happy together isn't really a "gay" film in my mind. Yes, the main characters are homosexuals, but that's not what the movie is about. Happy Together is about destructive relationships, and how we keep crawling into them even though we know they aren't good for us and get in the way of us being happy. You could've substituted a woman for Leslie Cheung or Tony Leung and I still think you get the same spirit of the movie. Brokeback Mountain on the other hand is about homosexuality and two men dealing with it in fear of what others may think. Never in Happy Together do they really say "we're gay" or fear their homosexuality. The movie treats it as if it were heterosexual relationship, unlike Brokeback Mountain.
Bother are very good films, but I think you can't compare the two really. But as far as film I like better simply on film aspects and film aspects alone, I would go with Happy together by a small hair simply because visually it is amazing.
You're reply makes sense, but I feel it's also a mistake to limit the reading of "Brokeback Mountain" as a gay film.
When viewed within the thematic context of Ang Lee's body of work, I think you can see a common thread, in that almost are the characters are motivated by an inner conflict between their personal needs (or how they perceive them) and their social responsibilities (or how they perceive them), which causes a strong sense of frustration.
Seen in those terms, I don't think that the gay issue is any more important than '70s key parties were in "The Ice Storm", or English hereditary laws were in "Sense and Sensibilities".
They're both works of art in my opinion. They both set out to tell different stories and convey different messages, therefore I don't feel like one "should have been" more like the other.
I'm a Taylor fan, not a Twilight fan.
How would "Brokeback Mountain" work if it was made like "Happy Together"? This isn't really a gay film, it's more about loneliness and abusive relationships, the characters could easily be heterosexuals.
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