Happy Together

San Francisco Chronicle Edward Guthmann

Loose, buoyant and bracingly original.

Variety 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.

Los Angeles Times 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]

Austin Chronicle 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.

San Francisco Examiner 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.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

Stylistically brash, pulsing with life.

Time Richard Corliss

[A] sexy, spiky love story.

TV Guide Ken Fox

Style oozing from virtually every frame.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) 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]

Chicago Reader 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.

Entertainment Weekly 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.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

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

Salon.com Charles Taylor

Happy Together feels joylessly fussed over.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

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

Empire Ian Freer

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

Boston Globe 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]