2046 is a year, it’s place, it’s a sci-fi novel within a movie we are watching set in mostly the 1960s Hong Kong. Initially we think this is a sci-fi film as it opens on the train and voice over telling us about how some go to 2046, never come back. Quickly though we are thrust into the 1960s and introduced to Chow (Tony Leung), a journalist who seemingly specializes in writing salacious articles for tabloids. 2046 is the apartment number in the building with the crappy landlord and the same apartment where Chow’s girlfriend (one of several) died. He moves next door to 2047 since 2046 is still being cleaned, but he likes being in 2047 after a while and then a pretty woman, Su (Gong Li), moves to 2046 who Chow starts pursuing. Of course this is a film about love and missed opportunities and heart break and like the other Kar-Wai films it is exquisite. It’s beautifully shot, filmed from interesting angles and has a cast that looks great and performs perfectly all set to a great musical score. More than any other this also perhaps is the one where I see a lot of Haruki Murakami’s influence on Kar-Wai’s work. Would be great to see if he ever adapts an actual Murakami novel.