Happy Together

Kino Video | Release Date: October 30, 1997

CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION

70	METASCORE Generally favorable reviews based on 17 Critic Reviews

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

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Critic Reviews

Critic score Publication By date

Russell Smith

Thanks largely to the raw bravery and intensity of the two leads' performances, Happy Together takes a quantum leap forward in terms of visceral power. Read full review

Jay Carr

An abundance of style and an almost total lack of substance make Wong Kar-wai's Happy Together a visually arresting but ultimately unrewarding excursion. [31 Oct 1997]

Jonathan Rosenbaum

Structurally and dramatically this is all over the place, but stylistically it's gripping, and thematically it suggests an oblique response to the end of Hong Kong's colonial rule. Read full review

David Sterritt

Wong Kar-Wai, whose energetic and inventive style isn't enough to give the shallow story the substance and resonance it needs. Read full review

EmpireIan Freer

In the absence of any genuine emotional wallop, it is the directorial pizzazz that pulls you through. Just about. Read full review

Lisa Schwarzbaum

The vignettes don't add up to a story, but Wong's nervy brio and subterranean-fantasy style make for an arresting work about an exotic subculture. Read full review

Josh Larsen

Wong captures this in his usual, expressive style, employing black and white at times and staggering the frame rate to accentuate heightened moments (including an aching slide into slow motion as the two men share a cigarette). Read full review

Kevin Thomas

The result is a take-no-prisoners movie from one of Hong Kong's most idiosyncratic, shoot-from-the-hip filmmakers that's the very antithesis of sentimental gay love stories. [31 Oct 1997]

Charles Taylor

Happy Together feels joylessly fussed over. Read full review

100

Edward Guthmann

Loose, buoyant and bracingly original. Read full review

G. Allen Johnson

Happy Together is Wong's most fully realized work. It is a pleasure to watch an interesting mind feel his way, and the result is something more than just a passing fancy. Read full review

Liam Lacey

Wong returns once more to what he seems to know best - the visual poetry of the urban Asian night, a world of characters on the move, coming and going, never really getting anywhere. [5 Dec 1997]

Stephen Holden

Stylistically brash, pulsing with life. Read full review

Richard Corliss

[A] sexy, spiky love story. Read full review

TV Guide MagazineKen Fox

Style oozing from virtually every frame. Read full review

Derek Elley

Maverick director Wong Kar-wai manages to pour old wine into new jars with Happy Together, a fizzy chamber yarn about two gay Hong Kongers in Argentina that's as slim as a bamboo flute but is his most linear and mature work for some time. Read full review

J. Hoberman

Acerbic, moody, and provocatively slight, it's a movie of apparent non sequiturs and privileged moments. [21 Oct 1997]