Directed by Wong Kar Wai • 1988 • Hong Kong
Starring Andy Lau Tak Wah, Maggie Cheung Man Yuk, Jacky Cheung Hok Yau
Wong Kar Wai’s scintillating debut feature is a kinetic, hypercool crime thriller graced with flashes of the impressionistic, daydream visual style for which he would become renowned. Set amid Hong Kong’s ruthless, neon-lit gangland underworld, this operatic saga of ambition, honor, and revenge stars Andy Lau Tak Wah as a small-time mob enforcer who finds himself torn between a burgeoning romance with his ailing cousin (Maggie Cheung Man Yuk, in the first of her iconic collaborations with the director) and his loyalty to his loose-cannon partner in crime (Jacky Cheung Hok Yau), whose reckless attempts to make a name for himself unleash a spiral of violence. Marrying the pulp pleasures of the gritty Hong Kong action drama with hints of the head-rush romanticism Wong would push to intoxicating heights throughout the 1990s, AS TEARS GO BY was a box office smash that heralded the arrival of one of contemporary cinema’s most electrifying talents.
Up Next in Directed by Wong Kar Wai
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Days of Being Wild
Directed by Wong Kar Wai • 1990 • Hong Kong
Starring Leslie Cheung Kwok Wing, Andy Lau Tak Wah, Maggie Cheung Man YukThe breakthrough sophomore feature by Wong Kar Wai represents the first full flowering of his swooning signature style. The initial entry in a loosely connected, ongoing cycle th...
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The Hand
Directed by Wong Kar Wai • 2004 • Hong Kong
Starring Gong Li, Chang Chen, Feng TienLike IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE, THE HAND is set in the hazy Hong Kong of the 1960s, but its characters couldn’t be more different from the earlier film’s restrained, haunted lovers. Originally conceived for the omnibu...
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Fallen Angels
Directed by Wong Kar Wai • 1995 • Hong Kong
Starring Michelle Reis, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Leon Lai MingLost souls reach out for human connection amid a glimmering Hong Kong in Wong Kar Wai’s hallucinatory, neon-soaked nocturne. Originally conceived as a segment of CHUNGKING EXPRESS only to spin of...
