As Tears Go By

Though as gritty as any 80’s Hong Kong gangster picture, As Tears Go By is a watershed film heralding one of the most auspicious directorial debuts in international cinema. Wong Kar-Wai’s visually stunning, tough and romantic 1988 first feature deftly smuggles the director’s now celebrated genius into an incendiary “Heroic Bloodshed” street opera of the John Woo mold.

Already stretched to breaking in a loyalty tug of war between Triad bosses and his loose cannon partner, Wah (Andy Lau), a rising star in the HK underworld, finds himself saddled with beautiful, ailing country cousin Ngor. As an escalating test of wills with a stubborn debtor explodes into bloodshed and a mob turncoat instigates a ruthless police crackdown, Wah’s growing fascination with Ngor becomes his last chance for escape from a violent past and a dubious future.

Cast in comic eye candy roles prior to As Tears Go By, Maggie Cheung (In the Mood for Love) cites Ngor, her first of many collaborations with Wong Kar-Wai, as the character that truly began her dramatic career. Under Wong Kar-Wai’s direction, Jacky Cheung (Days of Being Wild) earned the 1988 Hong Kong Film Awards Best Actor Award for his portrayal of Wah’s guilt-ridden, out of control partner Fly. Balancing epiphanous imagery with experimentation and realism with brazen romanticism, Wong Kar-Wai’s As Tears Go By offers a tantalizing glimpse into the nascent brilliance of one of the most influential filmmaking talents of the last twenty years. –Kino