Director Wong Kar-Wai made this loose sequel to one of the best films ever made, his 2000 classic In the Mood for Love. Much of the story is set around Christmas eve.
In the far future, people take a train to the world of 2046, where no sadness or sorrow can be experienced. No one has ever returned from that world except for a lonely Japanese writer, who narrates the first part of the film.
There are four acts to the story and as is common to Wong Kar-Wai, they are listed in non-chronological order. Not that you will care but 2046 is far from confusing. Instead, it functions as a dazzling visual poem on unreciprocated love.
"Mainland actress Zhang Ziyi proves she's a star of major range and luminosity ... while Hong Kong leading man Tony Leung Chiu-wai carries the pic with the charm of a young Clark Gable."
— Derek Elley
Women enter and exit a science fiction author's life over the course of a few years after the author loses the woman he considers his one true love.
"For all its balance and grandeur, 2046 is the most nervous of Wong's films."
— Kent Jones