2046 Plot

2046 is a Hong Kong movie (filmed in Shanghai) written and directed by Wong Kar-wai, released in 2004. It is a sequel to Days of Being Wild (released in 1991) and In the Mood for Love (released in 2000). It follows the love-life of Chow Mo-wan in 1960s' Hong Kong but includes some science fiction elements.

Total secrecy surrounded the movie before its release, and this led to a lot of speculation as to the significance of the number "2046". Many thought the title referenced the year in which the movie would be set, and that it would be a science fiction film. It also became an in-joke that the title would actually refer to the year of release.

The film took a whole four years in making, and the production suffered a good deal of bad luck. For example, the production was shut down because of the SARS epidemic in March 2003. It finally premiered during the 2004 Cannes Film Festival as a competitive film (the reels arrived straight from the laboratory causing a delay in the schedule), yet Wong pulled the film off after the premiere to continue editing it. Wong was reportedly still editing it until October, when it was finally finished and released to theaters.

It has been picked up by Sony Pictures Classics in the United States of America, and is scheduled for release on 5 August 2005.

Christopher Doyle has stated that this will be his last time working with Wong Kar-wai. He cited "repeating themselves" as the reason.

2046 is the number of the hotel room in In the Mood for Love in which Tony Leung Chiu Wai and Maggie Cheung's characters meet to write their kung fu serial.

In the movie 2046, "2046" is the number of a hotel room occupied by Lulu, and later by Bai Ling at the Oriental Hotel, while Tony Leung's room number is 2047.

In the same movie, the main character (Tony Leung) writes science fiction stories, in which 2046 is a popular year to which people travel through time. The stories are titled 2046 and later 2047 (a collaboration with Faye Wong's character).

The year 2046 has its own significance for Hong Kong. It is 49 years after the handover of Hong Kong by the British on July 1, 1997. At the time of handover, the Mainland government promised fifty years of self-regulation for the former British colony. The year 2046, then, references the moment before Hong Kong's special, self-regulated status ends.

The main line of the movie takes place in Hong Kong, in the "Oriental Hotel", between 1966 and 1969. Some flashbacks show the main character (Tony Leung) in Singapore. Some parts of the movie show pieces of the 2047 science fiction story that Tony Leung is writing.

A herald of Wong's respect for his imagination, as well as a summary of his previous films, 2046 is a ground-breaking film in Wong's career, much like La Dolce Vita to Federico Fellini. As Chow Mo-Wan uses his personal experience to imagine "2047", he manages to face his troubled past. Similarly, Wong Kar-wai uses his previous personal experiences, already portrayed in his earlier movies, to imagine "2046", a film that houses his trademark sentimentalism, allowing his very self to push ahead into his realm of imagination.