In ancient myth, the Iguazú Falls were formed by the enraged Serpent God, slicing two lovers apart. Millions of litres of thick river rushed with brute force down a staircase of greenery and thrust toward a billow of mist to create a barrier for all eternity between the two.
In Wong Kar-wai’s Happy Together, the falls are just as violent and malign. Dark murky water plunges itself into the tiresome relationship between lovers Lai Yiu-fai and Ho Po-wing. It is possible the Serpent God has doomed them too.
Wong bookends the film with aerial shots of the Iguazú beast in a slow-moving pan around its wide-open mouth, soaking hypnotized audiences in the droplets sprayed upwards. The motif is even decorated on a lampshade owned by Yiu-fai (Tony Leung Chiu-wai) and Po-wing (Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing) while it acts as their travel destination. Here they plan to start over again and again and again.
Tangoing toward the antipode of Hong Kong, the beaus search for renewal in Argentina. Over shouts of anger, they sway their hips to the beat of their aggression, embracing each outburst of passion. Frustrated screams and cries are identical to intimacy in bruised ears.
Cyclical love bleeds out the wounds of Yiu-fai and Po-wing as they pause and resume their union. They nestle into 100 square feet of cheap South American housing and lay against one another in an infested single-sized bed to keep warm. Isolated and lonely, home—as unstable as it may be—is best found in each other.
The wash of Wong’s signature vibrant colour scheme does not exempt Happy Together from its mighty grasp. The toxic colours mime the men’s hellbent relationship.
Black-and-white scenes are found peppered into the timeline as vignettes of the lovers’ regretful past. The desaturation somehow still feels sparkly. It is ensured that every foot of film used captured thousands of miniature paintings, all worth framing in gold.
The walls of my brain are plastered with scenes of carnal appetite and fury. Yet it is possible that humour springs out and allows my shoulders to breathe. The abundance of cigarettes, foolish horseplay, and wicked sass that work their way into the lovers’ breakups play out like screwball comedies. I let my head fall back in laughter just to whiplash into remorse as I fall in and out of love with their attachment.
“Turns out all lonely people are the same,” Yiu-fai says. The road has come to an end and it is covered in gallons of river water, rushing steadily downward. In another lifetime they may start over again, but in this lifetime, they can only live unhappily apart.