Hidden Flick: The Ocean Learns To Sway

A man has an experience in the year 2046 after riding on a fast train through a metropolitan city with all the touchstones of the Distant Future in Full Bloom. From there, a man and a woman or three appear in a room or two to ponder one or more memories. He’s a science fiction author, and the fiction becomes reality and time returns to the 20th century, blending between the 1960s and post-way-out-there-modern elements, drifting from relationships and into new liaisons, always returning to that one great spark of love with The One, The One that will make it all right and true. The main character is played by Tony Leung Chiu-Wai with a cool intensity that is equal parts subtle, complex, and downright brilliant. His own pursuits are further complicated by the fact that the action in the film takes place in room 2046, always in that room where lost memories and experiences can be found, while Chui-Wai’s character resides in room 2047.

But The One doesn’t really exist as a martial arts novel is written, sex ensues, characters shift in and out of non-linear space, and time bends as a train from the far off future, the future when Hong Kong will be wedded with mainland China in 2047, post-British rule and post-self-governed era, bursts forth to connect the unruly with the organized, the old with the new, and forming some sort of new today with a nada nod to yesterday.

The themes of time and space are expounded upon and offered here. Hints of a glorious science fiction epic soar throughout the story, but gradually subside within the subtext of the film—one can never go home again; true, that; but one can never quite go back to the one true spark of love that began it all, that one space where it all began and ended. Yes, one can return to the person that offered said eternal love, but, somehow, in some dark, mysterious way, that love has changed and altered, grown and developed, evolved and de-evolved into yet another curl of water to drown one once again, until the head is forever on the surface, treading, always treading…the ocean does, indeed, learn to sway. The mighty ocean of time also learns to cover up the past, so one can evolve, move on, albeit dejected, but somewhat enlightened. 2046 clarifies. 2046 offers a powerful statement about living in the moment, and not leaving one’s truths hidden in a forgotten box in the past. 2046 isn’t to be described; it’s to be experienced.

Randy Ray

Related Content

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recent Posts

New to Glide

Keep up-to-date with Glide

Twitter