- It's always interesting when a film like Wong Kar-Wai's Days of Being Wild demonstrates very little sympathy for its ostensible protagonist. Said character, Yuddy (Leslie Cheung), is an obnoxious womanizer, and the film absolutely knows it. We first encounter him aggressively pursuing the quiet, aloof Su Li-Zhen (Maggie Cheung), who is so lonely that she even falls for his line about remembering the exact minute that they met. Fast-forward a bit, and she's storming out of his apartment because he refuses anything resembling commitment. On what seems like the same day, Yuddy beats up the boyfriend (Danilo Antunes) of his adoptive mother (Rebecca Pan) and steals Mimi (Carina Lau) away from him, too. It doesn't take long for him to ditch Mimi, either.
- Nominally, I suppose that we should feel sorry for Yuddy because his life has been dominated by a misguided quest to locate his birth parents in the Philippines, but his behavior is so beyond the pale that it immediately negates any charitable feelings we might have. His building-scaling friend Zeb (Jacky Cheung) tries to emulate Yuddy, inheriting his car and even trying unsuccessfully to inherit Mimi, but he comes across as a pale imitation of the original. The only really decent man in the story is a policeman named Tide (Andy Lau), who tries to comfort Li-Zhen and even takes care of Yuddy after his trip to the Philippines takes a shocking turn for the worse.
- Like Wong's first film, As Tears Go By, this one is much more enjoyable as a demonstration of skilled direction, cinematography (by Wong's longtime collaborator, Christopher Doyle), and acting than as a completely enjoyable piece of entertainment. The seeds of great films like Chungking Express are present — yes, there is a wistful tune that gets replayed several times — but Yuddy is so repellent that I found myself disliking those parts of the film that he was in, which was most of them. I found myself reminded of Scorsese's Mean Streets, although that one had the good sense not to make Johnny Boy the main character. In any case, I recommend watching Days of Being Wild for its wonderfully dour Hong Kong rainstorms, its fascinating rendition of East Asia in the early 60s, and its terrific ensemble cast, but notably not for its main character.
- Tony Chiu-Wai Leung shows up in the last scene, in a strange promise of a sequel that was never made.
- Apparently the title is taken from the Cantonsese translation of Rebel Without a Cause.
