Product Details

• Actors: Leslie Cheung, Maggie Cheung, Andy Lau, Carina Lau, Rebecca Pan
• Directors: Kar Wai Wong
• Writers: Kar Wai Wong, Jeffrey Lau
• Producers: Alan Tang, Joseph Chan, Rover Tang
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English, Tagalog
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Kino Video
• DVD Release Date: October 19, 2004
• Run Time: 94 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0002X7GWU
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #110,979 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Days of Being Wild" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

From The New Yorker

The second film by the director Wong Kar-wai, and the first in which he displayed his signature traits that continue to fascinate and annoy-the predilection for loosely interconnected scenes of elliptical conversation, the obsession with rainfall, and the intuitive gift for isolating the moments when his actors drop their masks, revealing elation, longing, and ennui. This 1991 movie is about a love triangle, with a playboy (the late Leslie Cheung) altering the geometries. It's often slow, almost languid, but unforgettable. With Maggie Cheung, Andy Lau, and Carina Lau. In Cantonese. -Michael Agger
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Product Description

DAYS OF BEING WILD - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stellar, October 12, 2004

By 

Obio Ntia (New York) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Days of Being Wild (DVD)

A throwback to 1960's Hong Kong and an essential example of Wong Kar-wai's direction, "Days of Being Wild" is a must-see with its superb casting, camera work, and soundtrack. Leslie Cheung plays Yuddy, a reckless womanizer seeking the identity of his real mother. Andy Lau and Jackie Cheung fall for Leslie Cheung's discarded lovers--Su Lizhen (Maggie Cheung) and a dancer called Mimi (Carina Lau). With fine performances all around, "Days of Being Wild" portrays heartbreak and longing as it draws viewers into its moody atmosphere. Arty and worthy of multiple viewings.

37 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars ...in all the wrong places..., November 20, 2004

By 

LGwriter "SharpWitGuy" (Astoria, N.Y. United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Days of Being Wild (DVD)

Days of Being Wild, Wong Kar-Wai's 1991 film, followed his 1988 As Tears Go By and solidified his style. In turn he made these two films after a couple of intriguing, unconventional swordsman-warrior films. It's easy to see why he's now regarded as one of the top Chinese directors; both his subjects and style are unique and captivating.

In Days of Being Wild he casts some of the best young Hong Kong actors then and now--Leslie Cheung, Maggie Cheung, Andy Lau--in a tale of those who look for love and never seem to find it. Or at least not for long at all. When a completely reckless Don Juan type teases a beautiful stadium ticket taker, promising her at their first meeting he'll always remember her for the minute they shared, this is enough to seduce the lonely girl into falling for him, only to have him callously dump her when she asks him to marry her.

While she finds solace by talking to a street cop, the womanizer hooks up with a semi-sleazy dancehall girl, meanwhile roughing up his aunt's suitor for the attempted theft of her pearl earrings. His aunt chides him for driving away her older suitor, yet stoically accepts what he's done; she needs him more than her suitor. She raised him when his mother abandoned him and now is more attached to him than she realized.

The cop leaves his job and becaomes a sailor. The womanizer leaves town and hooks up with the sailor, completely coincidentally. Meanwhile the ticket taker girl and the dancehall girl find their own ways without the love they need, just as the sailor has done, trying to forget the ticket taker with whom he fell in love, never hearing from her, causing him to abandon his street, his town, and put out to sea.

The parable of a legless bird, the womanizer's fictional tale he uses in his seduction ploys, is one that frames this lyrical piece of filmmaking. The endpieces of lush jungle greenery--hundreds of thick palm trees--accompany the voiceover narration of this tale. The completely offbeat music, ranging from salsa to slow romantic dance music--competely Western--to quirky pizzicatos and glissandi, is similarly accompanied by Chris Doyle's assured cinematography. This was the first major Hong Kong film shot by Doyle and his rich style, embracing a wide spectrum of colors and tones is much in evidence, making this, as already noted, a truly unique cinematic experience.

In fact, WKW's collaboration with Doyle here is so complete, careful, well thought out, and subtle, that it would be impossible to imagine one without the other. So too is the use of the completely Western soundtrack. Set in 1960s Hong Kong, the feel of the era is effortlessly captured, also adding to the atmosphere of this rich film.

This is a landmark film in that, for its time, almost 15 years ago, it focused on aspects of life not previously shown in Hong Kong film and was an obvious departure from the martial arts movies American audiences expected from that part of the world. The advent of not only WKW but a number of 4th, 5th, and 6th generation directors from China and HK can easily count Wong Kar Wai as one of its breakthrough filmmakers. And this film is more than ample proof of that.

Loneliness, sadness, restlessness, lust, longing, emptiness. A film that resonates.....

Definitely recommended.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Terribly inferior subtitling on this release!, October 20, 2006

By 

Cody K. (Jamokidence, Rhode Island, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Days of Being Wild (Remastered Golden Collection) DVD (DVD)

I acquired the MegaStar/Golden Collection release of Days of Being Wild at a relatively low price. While the video transfer is quite good, the English subtitles are so much of a mess that I had to stop and review several scenes before I could get a sense of the dialog. I've got a high tolerance for the occasional errors in spelling, grammar, and punctuation found in subtitles on many otherwise excellent Asian releases of Asian films;
but the subtitles here are so difficult to slog through that the viewer really comes away with a diminished sense of what the film is about.

After watching this version, I rented the Kino release. The subtitles are excellent -- as is the film, of course -- so my advice would be to avoid this one and get the Kino. Also, if ordering used, be sure that the seller is in fact offering the Kino version -- I've seen this one for sale on the Kino page as well, so look closely.