Days of Being Wild (1990)

In 1960's Hong Kong, a young man struggles to find a place for love in his life.
Cast and Information
Directed By: Kar-Wai Wong
Written By: Kar-Wai Wong
Starring: Andy Lau, Maggie Cheung, Tony Chiu-Wai Leung, Leslie Cheung, Jacky Cheung, Carina Lau, Rebecca Pan, Maritoni Fernandez, Danilo Antunes, Mei-Mei Hung, Angela Ponos, Elena Lim So
Genre: Drama
Franchise: In the Mood for Love
AKAs: Ah fei zing zyun, A Fei zheng chuan
Country: Hong Kong
Where to Stream
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Days of Being Wild belongs to 42 collections
1. Favorite Film of Every Criticker Member (collaborative: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 95 stars)
2. They Shoot Pictures 1,000 Greatest Films (2008 revision) (collaborative: moderated by Scottathon - 39 stars)
3. Jonathan Rosenbaum's Top 1000 Movies (collaborative: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 38 stars)
4. The Guardian's 1000 films to see before you die (collaborative: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 30 stars)
5. They Shoot Pictures 1,000 Greatest Films (2014 revision) (collaborative: moderated by Jehan - 27 stars)
6. They Shoot Pictures 1,000 Greatest Films (2017 revision) (collaborative: moderated by iconogassed - 22 stars)
7. The Story of Film: An Odyssey (collaborative: moderated by rant1229 - 20 stars)
8. They Shoot Pictures' Recommended Viewing (collaborative: moderated by Cinephile - 19 stars)
9. They Shoot Pictures 1,000 Greatest Films (2013 revision) (collaborative: moderated by rant1229 - 16 stars)
10. Metacritic - Universal Acclaim (collaborative: moderated by sengir - 14 stars)
11. They Shoot Pictures 1,000 Greatest Films (2020 revision) (public: djross - 13 stars)
12. International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers (collaborative: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 11 stars)
13. Christopher Doyle, Cinematographer (collaborative: moderated by paulofilmo - 10 stars)
14. The Village Voice: 150 Groundbreaking Films (public: kevinjoseph - 9 stars)
15. Slate's 50 Other Best Films of the 1990s (public: TychoCelchuu - 9 stars)
16. 1960s period film (collaborative: moderated by djross - 8 stars)
17. Hong Kong Film Awards' List of The Best 100 Chinese Motion Pictures (collaborative: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 6 stars)
18. Best by different standards (public: sesito71 - 6 stars)
19. Doubling The Canon (2010 update) (collaborative: moderated by MMAlpha - 5 stars)
20. They Shoot Pictures 1,000 Greatest Films (2007 revision) (collaborative: moderated by Scottathon - 4 stars)
21. The Auteurs World Cup (collaborative - 4 stars)
22. They Shoot Pictures ex-Top 1,000 (collaborative: moderated by MMAlpha - 3 stars)
23. LoveHKFilm: The Best 200 Hong Kong Films Ever (public: edkrak - 3 stars)
24. Criterion Collection (Blu-ray and 4K) (public: PepeCamello - 3 stars)
25. The Lost Picture Show Podcast (collaborative: moderated by Coheed - 2 stars)
26. Vaporwave aesthetics (collaborative: moderated by Ghalea - 2 stars)
27. mwgerb's Netflix Instant Queue (public: mwgerb - 2 stars)
28. Top 50 Most Want to See (public: kendell - 2 stars)
29. Doubling the Canon (2011 update) (collaborative: moderated by MMAlpha - 1 star)
30. A Year of Essential Cinema (collaborative: moderated by Ibetolis1 - 1 star)
31. Doubling the Canon (2012 update) (collaborative: moderated by Cinephile - 1 star)
32. Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival's 100 Greatest Chinese-Language Films (public: Dr.N0 - 1 star)
33. Films considered the best from each country's National Polls (public: Hadleyreis - 1 star)
34. Hong Kong Film Awards - Best Film (collaborative: moderated by iceblox)
35. To Watch (public: normalchaos)
36. Filmspotting Ratings Project: Week 4 (public: PeaceAnarchy)
37. cmiles - Possibles List (public: cmiles)
38. 3: High Priority (Not in English) (public: KasperL)
39. watchlist (public: babuba)
40. Complete Director Project (public: kendell)
41. REWATCH (public: AFlickering)
42. Watchlist (public: Panunzio)
Browse the full list of collections
Stars | User | Rating | |
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PeaceAnarchy | 85 81st |
Typical Kar Wai Wong, which is not a bad thing at all. Interconnected love stories and fleeting meditations supported by wonderful visuals and a good soundtrack. He went on to perfect what he started here but it was already pretty great by this point.
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Icarus | 83 72nd |
Beautiful film from Wong Kar-Wai. It's easy to see the beginnings of some of his later films. He has several excellent sequences in this, beautifully written and filmed so as to create what could be self-contained short films. However, to his credit, that doesn't make the film feel disconnected. All that said, this doesn't reach the heights of his later work like Chungking Express and In the Mood for Love.
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MartinTeller | 74 50th |
Pretty good, although it didn't leave much an impression. Something like a warm-up for In the Mood for Love and 2046. Wong Kar-Wai and Christopher Doyle are such a killer combination in the visuals department, though, at least it's a feast for the eyes.
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Actionberg | 65 39th |
This is rife with Wong's style, if a little less kinetic than his later work. It's also considerably less colorful, and in turn depicts a far drearier world where loneliness is a supersaturated commodity. The more interesting scenes take place in the Philippines towards the end, where the two destitute protagonists (he always has to have at least two, doesn't he?) have their misadventures coalesce. I'm not going to defend that ending; it was pointlessly out of place.
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Alex Watkins | 4 70th |
More matter-of-fact, less melancholy introduction to the motifs and themes that have dominated Wong's career: loneliness, chance encounters and missed opportunities, nostalgia and regret, the inevitable passing of time. If it's less formally daring than Wong's later work, it's scarcely less assured. In its own way, it functions as a Rosetta Stone for everything to follow: almost all of Wong's subsequent films are a response to or a riff on this.
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moraesfelipe | 90 95th |
Sweaty, rainy, greeny story of missed chances of love and restless hope for the future as we go back to 1960's HK. Man who makes women fall for him, but he himself can't fall for them - just wants to find his birth mom -, a shop girl who also works at a stadium befriends a cop - and he falls for her; an escort trying to escape herself while trying to not fall for her boyfriend's (dude looking for mom) best friend. Burst of violence on a roof in Philippines is Doyle's steadicam masterpiece.
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M_A | 69 53rd |
Traditional Wong themes of unrequited love and loneliness make their appearance here, bathed in Christopher Doyle's typically lavish cinematography and camera work. In truth, this is a less developed and beautiful precursor to Wong's later masterpieces. This is a decent place to get a feel for the director, but it doesn't approach the levels of poignancy or ingenuity that can be found in his later films.
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Cinema_Asia | 75 71st |
A story about unrequited love, a jaded womanizer searching for his real mother, and individuals pining for that person to come in and complete their lives. The film is typical Wong Kar Wai with moody tones, gorgeous shots, and great music but there were some serious flaws in the last 30 minutes of the film. It's too bad because this is by far his most accessible work even if it is flawed. Leslie Cheung's performance is also understated and fantastic.
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randori | 65 42nd |
gecmisinin pesini birakmadigi avare kahraman kendini ancak kondugunda-oldugunde huzur bulacakmis gibi hissetmekte. olaylarin gelisimi biraz brezilya dizisini andirsa da daha ilk filmlerinde bile izleyiciye ben iliski yonetmeniyim mesajini vermis. tabii daha sonralari kamerasi daha da estetiklesiyor.
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karamazov. | 60 80th |
I have always maintained that the ending is formally, narratively, analogous to that of "Taxi Driver" [1976].
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Vdecraim | 70 42nd |
Discovering new directors could make for some great phobia's. The fear that you stumble upon experiences that leave you ambiguous and frustrated, as figuring out the intentions of an artist is not always a joyful experience. "Days of Being Wild", without having seen Wong's other films, is such an experience. It occasionally shows cinematic greatness, and the Don Juan-like take on existentialism (hello there Camus) continues to unfold in your head. But most of the time, I was just bored.
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Average Percentile 64.28% from 1015 Ratings | ![]() |