Journal 3
I Saw a Classic Movie: Happy Together
On November 23, I watched a movie called Happy Together in Chiayi’s in89 Cinemax. The Chinese name of Happy Together can be translated into “a gleam of spring suddenly leaks,” which lingered in my mind for a while the first time I heard of it. The movie was shot by a famous Hong Kong director named Wong Kar Wai, and most of the lines was in Cantonese. The story was roughly about how a gay couple, Lai and Ho, gave up the toxic relationship and started to live their own lives.
Spoiler Alert:
If you mind knowing the plot before watching the very movie, please turn away and cover your eyes and ears!
The whole movie began with a trip to Argentina, and the destination is to to have a glance of magnificent Iguazu Falls. However, they got lost and Ho decided to be apart. Unfortunately, they spent all of their money, so they both couldn’t return to Hong Kong. Hence, Lai applied for job in a local bar to save for airplane ticket, while Ho seemed to enjoy life in Bueno Aries and depended on an old rich man he dated after they split. The parallel situation lasted for a while until Ho showed up again in Lai’s surrounding. It turned out to be that Ho got in troubles and both of his hands got hurt, which made Lai have no choice but taking care of Ho in his rental apartment.
Getting Ho back in his life, Lai found himself having desire of keeping Ho in his apartment, and he even wish that Ho’s hands had never recovered. Therefore, Lai hide Ho’s passport. To make more money for feeding them both, Lai changed his job to a cook in a Chinese restaurant. There met he Chang, a young guy leaving Taiwan for adventure around the world. The vigor and charm of Chang influenced Lai in a subtle way. Chang voluntarily set off his journey to witness breath-taking landscape and make friends from various places. Compared to Chang, Lai followed Ho’s wandering to Argentina and desperately wanted to go back to Hong Kong. They both traveled a long way to the other side of earth, but their mindsets are different. Chang pursued new possibilities, and Lai still tried to make up for a ragged past.
When Ho was fully recovered, he asked Lai for his passport. Same as Lai expected, Ho turned to him for a shelter then, but Ho could easily turn away whenever he didn’t need Lai’s help. Lai was upset about it, and they had a fight and broke up. Perhaps inspired by Chang, once Lai had enough money, he booked a flight to Taiwan to have a look at Chang’s hometown. Before he flied to Taiwan, he went to Iguazu Falls, his original destination, on his own. The image of Iguazu Falls was spectacular as if I could even feel the water splash on my face. Standing under the enormous scenery, Lai couldn’t tell whether it was tears or not. After all, It is better for him to watch Iguazu Falls with a partner.