Critic Rating
(read reviews)User Rating
Director
Wong Kar-wai
Cast
Tony Leung Chiu-Wai,
Leslie Cheung,
Chang Chen,
Gregory Dayton,
Yee-Gan Chan
Genre
Drama,
Romance
A couple take a trip to Argentina in search of a new beginning, but instead find themselves drifting ever further apart as they struggle to escape cyclical dysfunction.
This film is as masterfully executed as Wong Kar-wai's "In the Mood for Love", but it examines love through a much harsher lens and with unforgiving proximity. Wong's unparalleled attention to detail makes this film feel true to life, even if some scenes are difficult to watch. The symbolism of the tango shows that Wong has his finger right on the pulse of this relationship, which is characterized by kinetic energy and antagonism. This film is visually striking, and deeply moving.
San Francisco Chronicle by Edward Guthmann
Loose, buoyant and bracingly original.
Los Angeles Times by Kevin Thomas
The result is a take-no-prisoners movie from one of Hong Kong's most idiosyncratic, shoot-from-the-hip filmmakers that's the very antithesis of sentimental gay love stories. [31 Oct 1997]
Variety by Derek Elley
Maverick director Wong Kar-wai manages to pour old wine into new jars with Happy Together, a fizzy chamber yarn about two gay Hong Kongers in Argentina that's as slim as a bamboo flute but is his most linear and mature work for some time.
Austin Chronicle by Russell Smith
Thanks largely to the raw bravery and intensity of the two leads' performances, Happy Together takes a quantum leap forward in terms of visceral power.
San Francisco Examiner by G. Allen Johnson
Happy Together is Wong's most fully realized work. It is a pleasure to watch an interesting mind feel his way, and the result is something more than just a passing fancy.
LarsenOnFilm by Josh Larsen
Wong captures this in his usual, expressive style, employing black and white at times and staggering the frame rate to accentuate heightened moments (including an aching slide into slow motion as the two men share a cigarette).
The New York Times by Stephen Holden
Stylistically brash, pulsing with life.
Time by Richard Corliss
[A] sexy, spiky love story.
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) by Liam Lacey
Wong returns once more to what he seems to know best - the visual poetry of the urban Asian night, a world of characters on the move, coming and going, never really getting anywhere. [5 Dec 1997]
TV Guide Magazine by Ken Fox
Style oozing from virtually every frame.
Chicago Reader by Jonathan Rosenbaum
Structurally and dramatically this is all over the place, but stylistically it's gripping, and thematically it suggests an oblique response to the end of Hong Kong's colonial rule.
Entertainment Weekly by Lisa Schwarzbaum
The vignettes don't add up to a story, but Wong's nervy brio and subterranean-fantasy style make for an arresting work about an exotic subculture.
Salon by Charles Taylor
Happy Together feels joylessly fussed over.
Christian Science Monitor by David Sterritt
Wong Kar-Wai, whose energetic and inventive style isn't enough to give the shallow story the substance and resonance it needs.
Empire
In the absence of any genuine emotional wallop, it is the directorial pizzazz that pulls you through. Just about.
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