My Heart Is That Eternal Rose
For a brief while in the middle 1990s, DAYS OF BEING WILD was my favourite Wong Kar-Wai film, largely on the strength of the opening and not-quite-closing scene. (The discussion of time and the ringing phone, for those who have seen it.) Someone named Patrick Tam was the editor on that. Since I wasn’t on the Internet back then, I wasn’t really able to do more than enjoy that film, and look for more of Wong’s work listed in print publications. When the chance came along to watch another Hong Kong film of the same vintage, some thirty years later, I thought I would give it a go. This time Patrick Tam was the director.
Despite an opening title sequence not to my taste, once Patrick Tam’s crime-and-romance melodrama gets going there’s never a dull moment. The first scene takes place in the beach-side bar belonging to Uncle Cheung (Kwan Hoi-san). It appears a popular choice for the beautiful young people of Hong Kong, amongst whom is Uncle Cheung’s daughter Lap (Joey Wong). She is pursued by Rick (Kenny Bee), who takes bets over who can shove a glass furthest along the bar. I immediately got CASABLANCA expectations from a bar with a character named Rick; but even if that might have been on the scriptwriters’ minds, Tam did little to evoke that classic Hollywood name.
Tam did think the script dull and sought to jazz up the film in other ways. Visually this does resemble the work of Wong Kar-wai, no doubt because regular Wong collaborator Christopher Doyle is one of the two cinematographers. The use of neon lighting to set the moods is spectacularly successful. But Tam also adds his own style with fourth-wall breaking shots, freeze-frames and great gouts of blood as people are punched, slashed or stabbed. There’s violence in this romance because Uncle Cheung has connections to criminal gangs. With him being called out of retirement for one last job, the story is set on its path to a concluding bloody shootout.
To get there, we go through so many events and twists that one wonders if this would have worked a bit better as a television mini-series. Tam did have a background in television, but with so much story jammed into two hours, even the ‘Six Years Later’ intertitle doesn’t allow viewers to have a break in the action. The emotions are intense, the violence sudden and ugly, and Lap is the girl everyone loves but only one man can truly have. The downbeat ending fails to carry the emotional weight of what has gone before satisfactorily, although perhaps that is me missing something about Chinese culture.
© 2026 Paul Brewer
Despite an opening title sequence not to my taste, once Patrick Tam’s crime-and-romance melodrama gets going there’s never a dull moment. The first scene takes place in the beach-side bar belonging to Uncle Cheung (Kwan Hoi-san). It appears a popular choice for the beautiful young people of Hong Kong, amongst whom is Uncle Cheung’s daughter Lap (Joey Wong). She is pursued by Rick (Kenny Bee), who takes bets over who can shove a glass furthest along the bar. I immediately got CASABLANCA expectations from a bar with a character named Rick; but even if that might have been on the scriptwriters’ minds, Tam did little to evoke that classic Hollywood name.
Tam did think the script dull and sought to jazz up the film in other ways. Visually this does resemble the work of Wong Kar-wai, no doubt because regular Wong collaborator Christopher Doyle is one of the two cinematographers. The use of neon lighting to set the moods is spectacularly successful. But Tam also adds his own style with fourth-wall breaking shots, freeze-frames and great gouts of blood as people are punched, slashed or stabbed. There’s violence in this romance because Uncle Cheung has connections to criminal gangs. With him being called out of retirement for one last job, the story is set on its path to a concluding bloody shootout.
To get there, we go through so many events and twists that one wonders if this would have worked a bit better as a television mini-series. Tam did have a background in television, but with so much story jammed into two hours, even the ‘Six Years Later’ intertitle doesn’t allow viewers to have a break in the action. The emotions are intense, the violence sudden and ugly, and Lap is the girl everyone loves but only one man can truly have. The downbeat ending fails to carry the emotional weight of what has gone before satisfactorily, although perhaps that is me missing something about Chinese culture.
© 2026 Paul Brewer
Mini Review: Something of a cross between Wong Kar-wai and John Woo, this good-looking, crowded melodrama leaves no trope unused on its way to a downbeat ending.