WTF ASIA 115: Happy Together (1997)

Anukkai

6 years ago

Once upon a time in…erm…Argentina?

Available in Canada, France, the United States, and maybe a few other countries. Approximately 96 minutes.

Hong Kongers Lai Yu-fai and Ho Po-wing are on vacation in Argentina, currently in a two-bed hotel room in Buenos Aires. Their relationship has been rocky, but Po-wing said the magic words: Let’s start over. That always works on Yu-fai. And like that, they are having sex on one of the beds.

Inspired by a lamp that shows an image of Iguazú Falls, the couple go on a highway in search of it. Yu-fai asks a truck driver for directions and then yells at Po-wing for leading them in the wrong direction…and the car will not start. Yu-fai shouts that they could have just taken the bus. Po-wing retorts that this car was the cheapest that they could get and would have been better than a bumpy bus ride. They eventually get the car working again, but it breaks down again before they can get to Iguazú. During that debacle, Po-wing decides that they should go on break again. Yu-fai is upset; he really wanted to see the waterfalls. By the time that they somehow make it back to Buenos Aires, they have gone their separate ways.

Having run out of money to go back to Hong Kong or go anywhere, Yu-fai looks for work. It is a struggle, but he finds a job as a doorman at a tango bar that is frequented by Chinese tourists. He rarely goes inside while at work, but stands around outside, sometime drinking. Meanwhile, Po-wing seems to have found a sugar daddy, and they sometimes visit the tango bar. Whether Po-wing seeks to antagonize Yu-fai is unclear. But it seems like he and his new boyfriend are enjoying themselves inside while Yu-fai stews outside. He has decided that he does not want to start over, just to go back to Hong Kong.

Yu-fai lives in an apartment complex with a communal telephone and kitchen. It is far from his work, but it is cheap. Somehow, Po-wing finds out the number for the building and calls him. Not wanting to go there in the first place, Yu-fai shows up at Po-wing’s hotel room drunk, angry, and still drinking from the bottle. It turns out that Po-wing just wanted a kiss. This does not lessen Yu-fai’s anger and they end up fighting. Po-wing mocks Yu-fai for working as a doorman, and Yu-fai shouts that Po-wing had spent all of his money. Po-wing asks if Yu-fai regrets their relationship. Of course he does. And why did Po-wing ask him to come to the hotel anyways? He just wanted Yu-fai around. Yu-fai throws the bottle at him and leaves.

One night, Po-wing drives over to the tango bar alone. He steps out and tosses a wristwatch to Yu-fei, saying that he can sell it if he doesn’t want it. Then he goes back to the car and drives off as Yu-fei examines the watch and puts it in his pocket. Later on, Yu-fei sees Po-wing on the corner across the street and goes over to him. Looking like he got punched in the face, Po-wing asks for the watch back. After work, they get on a bus. Yu-fei expresses no sympathy for Po-wing’s state, even though Po-wing claims that it was because of Yu-fei that he was assaulted. It seems like he had stolen the watch from one of his sugar daddies. Yu-fei says that he didn’t wanted. Po-wing still puts the blame on him for putting the watch in his pocket instead of giving it back. Yu-fei offers to walk Po-wing home, but Po-wing rejects him, saying that Yu-fei just treats him like a punching bag. They get off the bus near (but not at) where Yu-fei lives and he gives back the watch. And a cigarette. And tells Po-wing not to look for him again.

Of course, Po-wing does not honor that, and somehow finds where Yu-fei lives. He shows up one day, bloodied and badly beaten. He gingerly embraces Yu-fei, who hugs tightly. They go to a hospital, where a very bandaged Po-wing suggests that they start over. And, like always, it seems to work on Yu-fei, who brings him back to the apartment. Po-wing tries to find nice things to say about the place. Noticing that Yu-fei still has the lamp, Po-wing asks if he had gone to Iguazú Falls. Nope. Neither has Po-wing, as he had been waiting to go there with Yu-fei. Maybe they can go there when he has recovered. Maybe. In the meantime, he can sleep on the flea-infested bed and Yu-fei will sleep on the sofa. Since Po-wing’s hands are bandaged, Yu-fei has to cook for him, feed him, and even bathe him. Still, Yu-fei is not quite ready to get close again as Po-wing wants to. He does, however, find Po-wing’s passport and secretly takes it.

Po-wing makes Yu-fei take a walk with him on a cold day, and Yu-fei gets sick as a result. With his hands still bandaged Po-wing, is still unable to feed himself properly. When he complains to Yu-fei, Yu-fei yells at him for making him cook when he is sick. But he does so anyways. I guess that he eventually recovers enough so that Po-wing can take him to a horse race, where he wins some money. Po-wing also convinces Yu-fei to dance with him in the apartment, which brings them closer together again.

It is work time again, and Yu-fei is sitting outside with a bottle as usual. He sees Po-wing’s former sugar daddy enter with his new boyfriend. His drunk self seeks vengeance against the man for having beaten Po-wing twice. At least twice. So he takes a bottle, goes inside, and causes some chaos. Somehow he does not get arrested, but he does get fired. Po-wing learns of this later and is very grateful, but Yu-fei would rather not talk about it.

Yu-fei eventually gets a job at a Chinese restaurant. It is there that he starts getting close with a man from Taiwan named Chang, another traveler working off debts at the restaurant. Between that and finding more reasons to lash out at Po-wing, Yu-fei’s relationship with Po-wing is headed for trouble once again.

As with In the Mood for Love, director Wong Kar Wai did not start this movie with a fully written script. There was a vague outline of a story, but even that got mostly thrown out as production went on. Whatever the thought process was for setting this movie on almost literally the other side of the world from Hong Kong, issues with the filming schedule also affected the end product, which included things like Terrence Malicking a fairly prominent character out of the movie completely save for maybe of half a second. If you watch the Criterion version of the movie, you can access a semi-documentary that as a bunch of deleted footage as well as the reasons for their ultimate exclusion from the movie proper. The result, as with other Wong Kar-wai movies, is a series of scenes that may flow together thematically, but do not necessarily form a fully coherent narrative. I forget if the black-and-white scenes were originally black-and-white, but I am sure that there is an emotionally resonant reason for them.

Wong may take issue with pigeon-holing this movie as a gay film, but I am guessing that the reason for filming this movie primarily on the opposite side of the world can be directly related to the homosexual content. In-universe, it appears that the characters had been running away from something in Hong Kong, and Argentina was literally as far away as they could get. In the real world, I am guessing that, regardless of how gay-friendly Buenos Aires was back then, a Hong Kong production trying to make even a semi-realistic portrayal of the gay scene in a faraway land would seem safer to do than exposing Hong Kong’s actual gay scene to a wide Hong Kong audience. Hong Kong was quite homophobic at the time. Leslie Cheung, who played Po-wing, was a huge star, and his going public with being bisexual made him a target of virulent harassment that most likely led him to take his own life in 2003.

I suppose that, at the heart of this movie is an unhealthy relationship between two damaged people. Po-wing could…sort of…be considered the less traditionally masculine of the two, using sex to get money from richer men while also acting rather extravagant and clingy. Yu-fei is seemingly more traditionally masculine, working in legitimate (though not necessarily well-regarded) jobs to earn money, thinking about reconciling with his father, having protective thoughts regarding Po-wing while also having a quick temper that can explode in violence. There is neither safety for them nor an outlet for their rage against a hostile society, so they lash out at the only people whom they can, themselves and each other. This leads to self-sabotage and destructive behavior that exacerbate their precarious circumstances.

The two of them decide to go to Argentina. Is it in the hopes that a change of scenery may renew their relationship? Or are they running away from trouble in Hong Kong? Perhaps, they took this trip in an attempt to find themselves. Instead, they find themselves stuck in a foreign land, and their relationship is as rocky as ever. This journey of self-discovery will be one of pain and hardship.

There is an issue of identity crises. The two of them were never going to find acceptance in the Hong Kong of 1996. Maybe they would have found more acceptance in a place like Argentina, but the homosexuality in Buenos Aires as depicted in the movie was still underground. They will not find stability, comfort, security, or a sense of belonging. Afraid to be lost and alone, all they had was each other, but they kept bringing out the worst in each other. They found themselves unwitting members of a diaspora, now outsiders both due to their sexuality and due to being Hong Kongers in a very White Spanish-speaking country. But, then, what does being from Hong Kong mean in 1996?

This movie was deliberately released right before the British handover of Hong Kong back to Mainland China. The focus of first few shots in the movie are not on Yu-fei and Po-wing, but their passports that show British ownership. Whether the movie had originally touched on the Falkland Islands controversy is beyond what I have learned, it shows that their national identity is also in flux. What does going back to greater China truly mean? What will happen? No one knows. It is interesting that the inclusion of a person from Taiwan, which was not part of the original plan, allows for an alternative. I am not sure if Taiwan was more friendly to the LGBTQ+ community in 1997 than Hong Kong or the PRC was, but it definitely seems to be now. And, given the increased crackdown on dissent that started on the day that I posted this article, Taiwan seems to be presenting itself as an alternative to Hong Kong in general. It could be seen as a possible inspiration for Hong Kongers or a refuge if things go badly. If one feels uncomfortable on the other side of the world, perhaps there is a place closer to home that could become home.