Eros - The Hand by Wong Kar Wai

Eros is made up of 3 disparate short films cobbled together to form a movie that has eroticism as its central theme. Eros is a collaboration between three directors of, I am told, a world-class repute. Of the three, I am only acquainted with the works of Wong Kar Wai, so naturally this review will centre on his contribution, which was titled The Hand.

The Hand was filmed at the same time as 2046. Expectedly, the mood and feel in Hand are comfortingly similar to that of 2046 and In the Mood for Love. So what is one to make of The Hand? The Wong Kar Wai feeling does come back. The aching love affair that wastes away the best years of one- it is back. The dark and colourless scenes in ITMFL are back. Our hero in 2046 is back, with neatly combed hair, cheeky moustache and dashing suit to boot- only that it is Zhang Zhen who plays the part this time, albeit still rather admirably. Gong Li is back too- she plays a hooker not unlike Zhang Ziyi in 2046. The familiar thumping sounds as couples next door have sex are back. The pained looks between a unloved lover and his loved one are back. The claustrophic houses, the dirty-looking offices, the phone calls, the apt soundtrack, the cheongsams, the chatty landladies... they are all back. Sometimes I would even half expect Siboney to start playing during the film again. (Siboney was one of the songs in the soundtrack for 2046.) They are all back to reassure the WKW fan but one begins to think one has seen it all before. Might WKW be hitting the dreaded artistic plateau? This movie seems at best a pretty decent side story to the Days of Being Wild/ ITMFL/ 2046 trilogy, featuring once again the Hong Kong of the '60s that WKW grew up in and evidently so misses. It whets the appetite of the WKW fan, but leaves the hunger somewhat unsatiated. Bangs on the table are heard, we want more.