Twenty-eight years after its first release, Wong Kar-Wai’s Days of Being Wild is now playing for the first time in Chinese mainland theaters.
Days of Being Wild went without a Chinese theatrical screening upon its first release in 1990. Despite its stellar cast, which included stars of Hong Kong cinema of the time like Maggie Cheung, Leslie Cheung (both pictured at top), Andy Lau, Jacky Cheung and Carina Lau, the initial box office return was less than impressive.
The film's original poster
It has since gone on to be praised as one of Wong Kar-Wai’s defining films, alongside other greats such as In the Mood for Love and Chungking Express, and also received nine nominations at the 10th Hong Kong Film Awards in 1991, taking home five of the top prizes.
Set in 60s Hong Kong and the Philippines, Days of Being Wild revolves around a cast of characters falling in and out of love. The film features Wai’s signature smoldering and intimate focus on his main characters.
The classic of Chinese cinema will screen throughout the month of July in 1,421 cinemas around the country, brought to viewers by the China Film Archive and their subsidiary Nationwide Alliance of Arthouse Cinemas.
Leslie Cheung and Carina Lau
The Nationwide Alliance of Arthouse Cinemas, established in 2016, initially partnered with 100 cinemas around the mainland, in an effort to bring “Chinese and Foreign films with unique artistic merit” to viewers around the country. That number has since grown to more than 150 cinemas and more than 200 screens.
The Alliance previously screened Oscar-winning film Manchester by the Sea in cinemas around China last year, and will focus on bringing award-winning Chinese films like Cai Chengjie’s The Widowed Witch to Chinese cinemas this summer.
Wong Kar-Wai
Wong Kar-Wai was recently named a judge at April’s Beijing Film Festival, and is currently working on a new web-based TV show, Tong Wars, based on gang wars that took place in 70s San Francisco Chinatown.
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