Rent Days of Being Wild (1990)

Audio problems - Days of Being Wild review by CP Customer

This DVD release has the original Cantonese dubbed over in Mandarin which takes away a lot of the atmosphere that Wong Kar Wai's films usually have.

This is the Criterion Collection version - Days of Being Wild review by AER

The other review comment refers to the Tartan release pictured - the one that I was sent is the updated Criterion Collection version with restored picture and audio. This is the first time I've seen Days of Being Wild and whilst it contains so many elements that I love about Wong Kar Wai's films, the main male character is such a turd that I couldn't relate to his fate. The reminder of the cast is less well-drawn yet more intriguing. For fans of this Hong Kong master, it's this film that you can begin to see the development of ideas that would become fully fleshed out in films like Happy Together, In The Mood For Love, and Chungking Express. This is second division Wong Kar Wai like My Blueberry Nights and 2046.

5 out of 10

Green Nights, Restless Hearts - Days of Being Wild review by griggs

I’ve always admired how Wong Kar-wai turns longing into something you can almost touch, so Days of Being Wild feels like leafing through his early sketchbook. The familiar elements are all there — the drifting nights, the clipped romances, the waiting that goes nowhere — just in a rougher, more impulsive form.

Leslie Cheung’s Yuddy is a study in beautiful failure: a man practising charm while coming apart at the seams. Maggie Cheung’s Su Lizhen carries the bruises that later echo into In the Mood for Love, and Andy Lau steps in with a quiet steadiness that makes everyone else look even more adrift.

Christopher Doyle is already nudging the film toward the look that defines Wong’s later work. The humid, green-tinged nights in Hong Kong and Manila give the whole thing a feverish charge, even when the plot wanders off for a smoke break.

It may drift and circle itself, but as the first stirrings of Wong’s long romance with yearning, it’s oddly gripping — the moment a distinctive style realises it’s about to exist.