Notions of home and the family were central to Happy Together<\/i>. It was commented on that this was related to the family or domestic melodrama which Thomas Elsaesser focused on in his \u2018Tales of Sound and Fury\u2019 article. Home was less connected to Lai\u2019s bedsit in which a fair amount of the film took place, than the fact the three main characters all wanted to leave Argentina to return to Hong Kong or Taiwan. This was However, other elements of the film negate the melodramatic connections. Stylistically the film does not seem very emotional or melodramatic. The black and white cinematography which is used for much of the film denotes a documentary aesthetic. This associates the film more strongly with realism. The characters\u2019 voice overs reinforce this as at times they help to explain the on screen action. The main voice over is Lai\u2019s which in itself might link to melodrama and the fact this is his story. But the appearance of other voice overs skews this focus.<\/p>\n The melodrama is also downplayed by the cyclical nature of the narrative. The film restages similar situations (often focusing on strong emotions such as jealousy and passion) fairly regularly, but these also revolve around quite mundane situations. Little is ever resolved. Fights begin but do not always reach a dramatic climax, either because the other half of the couple does not wish to argue, storms out, or the film cuts away \u2013 sometimes to completely unrelated scenes. In addition, at times the film suggests connections through its editing, but these go nowhere. A lingering shot of Lai washing blood from the outside the abattoir he works at is juxtaposed with a scene of Ho scrubbing the bedsit floor and crying. It was thought at first by some that perhaps Ho It was also remarked upon that, as Kenneth Chan noted in his article, the film\u2019s editing was particularly important. Indeed much of the film\u2019s dramatic power originated in its editing as well as its subject matter. While the film\u2019s pace was slow at times, at others it was very snappy \u2013 especially the speeded up scenes of public spaces which seemed unrelated to much of the \u2018action\u2019 and indeed to melodrama.<\/p>\n We also discussed Wong Kar Wai as an auteur. On a broad level, the notion of Hong Kong heritage and identity is clearly a main focus of his work. The symbolism of the Falls as an example of Wai\u2019s wider concern with pathetic fallacy was more closely linked to melodrama, however. The \u2018false ending\u2019 intercuts scenes of Lai\u2019s return to the Falls, his face saturated with spray, and those of Ho at the bedsit, crying. The symbolism was compared to similar instances in Wai\u2019s works Chungking Express<\/i> (1994) and In the Mood for Love<\/i> (2000).<\/p>\n Comments were made on Elsaesser\u2019s 1972 article. \u00a0This relates to Wai due to the director\u2019s status as an auteur and Elsaesser\u2019s focus on auteurism. Elsaesser was clearly very influenced by Cahiers du Cinema<\/i> and the examination of mise en scene<\/i> for symbolism. In Happy Together<\/i> this is mostly represented by the Falls. \u00a0But while Elsaesser discusses a director\u2019s other works, he does not address how an audience might have access to this information. Indeed his approach was thought to include much \u2018reading-in\u2019 from a critic or academic\u2019s response rather than an audience\u2019s.<\/p>\n Finally, contextualising Wai among other Asian directors was undertaken. Hirokazu Koreeda\u2019s Nobody Knows<\/i> (2004) downplays the inherent melodrama of a mother abandoning her children. We wondered if this restraint was therefore particularly true of Asian cinema. However it was also noted that directors from other National Cinemas such as Britain\u2019s Ken Loach are also downbeat in their approach. We noticed that some of the films we\u2019ve watched over the last 9 months have been melodramatic in plot as well as treatment (The Sheik, Gaslight<\/i>) while others focus on suffering but are less obviously concerned with excess (Love on the Dole, Happy Together<\/i>). <\/b>This neatly comments on the infinite variety of melodrama, its treatment and its many meanings\u2026.<\/p>\n Many thanks to Keeley for choosing such an interesting film, which provoked a lot of useful discussion!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Posted by Sarah Our discussion extended into several different areas: Happy Together\u2019s melodramatic elements; the importance of home and family to melodrama and to Happy Together; the Argentine setting; \u00a0aspects of the film which negated the melodramatic elements; Wong Kar … Continue reading ![\"Happy](\"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/melodramaresearchgroup\/files\/2013\/05\/Happy-Together-road-150x150.jpg\")
<\/a>We began by moving from the very general question we\u2019ve often asked \u2018What is melodrama?\u2019 to \u2018Is this particular film a melodrama?\u2019 Some aspects of the film certainly fitted in with our understanding of melodrama: the suffering endured by ill-fated lovers Lai (Tony Leung) and Ho (Leslie Cheung) often expressed by tears; the exaggerated melodramatic gestures used by the actors when the couple lose their way (perhaps metaphorically as well as literally) on the road, as well as some of their other, more physical fights; the coincidences which occur throughout the film as Ho always manages to find Lai, and Lai runs into Chang\u2019s family in Taipei.<\/p>\n![\"Happy](\"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/melodramaresearchgroup\/files\/2013\/05\/Happy-Together-tango.png\")
<\/a>despite the fact that the culture of Argentina welcomed the main couple (the tango after all was first performed between male partners). It was thought important to consider that while the film must be contextualised within Chinese and Hong Kong melodrama (as Chan\u2019s article does), the Argentine setting was also significant. However, it is true that the Hong Kong community had a strong presence in the film\u2019s portrayal of Argentina. The focus on people rather than places was also seen in the assertion that family make home what it is. When Lai meets Chang\u2019s family he says that he can see why Chang is happy to travel. At first this appears insulting, but he goes on to explain that this is because he has the security of his family to come back to. Conversely Lai\u2019s father is disappointed in his son\u2019s behaviour.<\/p>\n![\"written](\"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/melodramaresearchgroup\/files\/2013\/05\/written-on-the-wind.png\")
<\/a>had killed Lai and this was the cause of his tears. Yet this was not followed up in the film. Happy Together\u2019s<\/i> cyclical pattern was compared to that of some of Douglas Sirk\u2019s films, and the family\/domestic melodrama more generally. In both Wai and Sirk\u2019s films the characters are tragic figures who do not learn from their mistakes, though in Wai\u2019s film the patterning is at a more narrative level. Indeed, this compulsion to \u2018start over again\u2019 is a key theme of Happy Together <\/i>as Lai is always being persuaded to do just this by his on-off boyfriend.<\/p>\n![\"Happy](\"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/melodramaresearchgroup\/files\/2013\/05\/Happy-Together-Falls-300x165.jpg\")
<\/a>This inability to resolve extends to the film\u2019s \u2018false ending\u2019. At a point quite near to the actual ending of the film, Lai revisits the Falls which have played a key symbolic role in the film. Yet this is not the conclusion to the film: Lai then visits Taipei on his way home to Hong Kong, and Chang visits the lighthouse to try to lose Lai\u2019s sadness. This happy ending seems added on and somewhat negates the melodramatic elements. It was also commented upon that the fact no one commits suicide at the lighthouse (which was initially how some of us interpreted it as a place for \u00a0\u2018leaving sadness behind\u2019) makes it less melodramatic, as does the fact, unusually for a gay drama of the 1990s, none of the characters die.<\/p>\n![\"in](\"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/melodramaresearchgroup\/files\/2013\/05\/in-the-mood-for-love-150x150.png\")
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