2046

The result is a sumptuous time-teasing story.

The romantic fatalism is so lush that you're invited to get lost in it.

Quite simply an incomparably sublime work of art, a triumph of lyricism over narrative in the cinema, and the most exquisite homage to the beauty of women it has ever been my privilege to witness on the screen.

It may help if you grasp the many allusions to Wong's earlier films (including, notably, Days of Being Wild), but it's far from necessary. This, after all, is undeniably real cinema.

Wong offers an artful meditation on the nature of love, making effective use of color schemes (yellows, greens and reds), placid shotmaking and diverse music to deliver a sultry portrait of postwar Hong Kong.