Hong Kong's most famous art-house filmmaker, Kar-wai Wong, began gaining acclaim after his innovative Chungking Express and Fallen Angels, but he won the supreme symbol of artful recognition when he took home the Director award at the 1997 Cannes Festival for Happy Together (Cheun gwong tsa sit).

Wong has become legendary for his dynamic cinematic style and his preference for improvisation, eschewing a written script and working only with a broad concept. Improvising creatively with the camera (and finding ways to put that raw footage together) isn't the easiest way to work. Wong's filmmaking methods require a team that can react instinctively and understand his vision.

You'll see that Wong retains the same cinematographer (Christopher Doyle II) and the same editor (William Chang) in all his movies since Ashes of Time, from 1994. Wong remains stylistically consistent: experimenting with film stock, looking for interesting juxtapositions, having characters talk to themselves, and playing on familiar themes of loneliness and unrequited love.

Like other Wong films, don't expect much action, as he again treats the audience to an in-depth examination of characters and their relationships. What sets Happy Together apart from his other films is his risky decision to pursue a story about gay lovers--a subject not looked favorably upon in his native land. That's likely why he shot Happy Together outside of Hong Kong, with some footage shot on location in Taiwan, and most of it in Argentina.

Chungking Express's Tony Leung returns to play Lai Yiu-fai, a loyal and sensitive gay man who is generally lonely and unhappy. From Wong's Ashes of Time, Hong Kong actor Leslie Cheung plays Yiu-fai's lover, Ho Po-wing, a promiscuous party animal who often seems to be up for sexual adventures without considering the other man's needs.

Even from the beginning, their relationship seems doomed. Yiu-fai speaks to himself about the many times they have broken up; Po-wing eventually says they can “start over.” Now they plan to “start over” by visiting the Iguaçu Falls in Argentina. Things go badly from the beginning—the two tourists get lost and find themselves stranded on a desolate highway outside of Buenos Aires. Po-wing abandons Yiu-fai for being "boring."

Out of money, Yiu-fai takes a menial job as a doorman outside a Buenos Aires tango club, where he eventually sees his former lover enter the club with a few "white trash" men cruising for sexual adventure. Once again, Yiu-fai demonstrates the pained look of a typical jilted lover, as he watches Po-wing demonstratively kissing one of his newfound friends. Cut later to a pensive and sad Yiu-fai, alone in his rented room, clad in only his underwear and pounding his wall in frustration.

However, he resolves to detach himself from his obsessive love with a man who will never return his loyalty, and Yiu-fai sticks to his guns when Po-wing calls him and wants to “start over” again. The two former lovers engage in an angry shouting match and a non-sexual physical struggle, with Yiu-fai walking out this time. Surprise--this time the promiscuous, wild Po-wing is left behind to cry his eyes out.

It's like Yiu-fai later says: "Turns out that lonely people are all the same." Though more outgoing and having had far more sexual partners than Yiu-fai, Po-wing desires an intimate relationship to escape his loneliness too, but has no idea how to maintain such a relationship.

The closest they come to being "happy together" occurs when Po-wing is beaten severely and taken in by Yiu-fai. This proves to be temporary. There is a very tenderly filmed scene in which Po-wing teaches Yiu-fai to tango. By this time, I genuinely hoped the kindhearted Yiu-fai could find some love in the world to take away his loneliness, yet I also realized that when Po-wing returned to full health, his old habits would return and send the relationship into another tailspin.

For some, Wong's style will seem tedious (where's the action?) but I find his work fascinating. No one who does the "unrequited love" theme better. The more recent In the Mood for Love (with Tony Leung) deals with this as well. Not only does unrequited love exist with the two main characters, but this also develops between Yiu-fai and Chang (Chen Chang). Wong slowly develops Yiu-fai's relationship with Chang, just like it would happen in real life, and the ambiguities are numerous.

Wong also draws supreme acting performances from his lead actors. While Leslie Cheung exhibits authentic roller coaster moments between longing, obsession, and frustration, Tony Leung is cast as the central figure.

Leung acts from the inside; you can read his emotions through subtle body language, and especially through the eyes--it's always the eyes with him. Even scenes that require physicality, like the fights he has with Leslie Cheung's character, don't happen abruptly (Leung builds up to these moments naturally and underplays them). And when the tears come, they emerge naturally, making us wonder from what part of Leung's soul he's dredging these moments.

The exposure Tony Leung and director Kar-wai Wong are now receiving from a wider release of In the Mood for Love should mean more opportunities to see them in non Asian markets--hopefully not at the expense of whoring their talents to meet Hollywood expectations.

Happy Together demonstrates the best that film has to offer: fine acting and creative visuals that offer insights into character that linger long after seeing the film, all with the power to touch the heart. And enough substance to warrant re-watching.

I'm still internally re-watching that juxtaposition Wong does between the waterfall lamp and the actual falls, along with Yiu-fai's thoughts. Those concerns Wong explores with such depth, about loneliness and unrequited love, continue to haunt. But I'll be back for more--whether it's a new Wong film or revisiting the old favorites. And right now Happy Together ranks as my favorite, and as the best gay themed film ever created.