Film

Days of Being Wild

Name: Days of Being Wild
Genre: Crime, Drama, Romance
Released: 1990
Cast: Leslie Cheung, Maggie Cheung, Andy Lau, Carina Lau, Jacky Cheung Hok-Yau

Drama

Wong Kar-wai's debut is a fever dream of neon, cigarette smoke, and emotional wreckage. A gorgeous, disorienting film about displacement and the people we hurt while searching for ourselves. It moves like a man in a rush and looks like a dream he can't wake from. Essential viewing for anyone who wants to understand where modern cinema's visual language comes from.

TMDb rating

3.7

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love films where mood and glancing looks carry more weight than plot, with restless, aching romance and a Hong Kong that feels slightly out of focus in the best way.

Skip it if you need momentum and a clear through-line, since this drifts, circles back and lingers on small gestures until the story itself feels like an afterthought.

What it asks of you: Ninety-four minutes of unhurried, smoky, sidelong storytelling, where you piece together feelings from silences and long glances in crowded rooms rather than being handed explanations.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

In the Mood for Love2000

Wong Kar-wai's masterpiece of longing and restraint. Two neighbors discover their spouses are having an affair and fall into a tentative, heartbreaking dance. Every frame is composed like a photograph. Pure cinema.

But Glacially paced and almost entirely about glances and silences. If you need plot momentum or dialogue, this will feel like watching paint dry in slow motion.

Chungking Express1994

Another Wong film, but lighter and more playful. Two lonely cops in Hong Kong fall for women who fall for the idea of them. Dreamy, funny, achingly tender. A perfect introduction to his style.

But The second half abandons the first storyline entirely and shifts tone completely. Some find it charming; others find it frustratingly scattered.

A Prophet2009

A young man enters prison as nobody and leaves as a force of nature. Riveting, brutal, and darkly funny. Shows how ambition and survival can corrupt a person from the inside. Jacques Audiard is a master.

But Visceral prison violence and casual cruelty. It's set in a world where kindness is a weakness, and the film doesn't flinch from that.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Days of Being Wild

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Taipei Story1985

Both films capture the specific melancholy of young people in fast-changing Asian cities, using visual style to express what characters won't say aloud. Both are debut landmarks that defined their era.

Edward Yang's understated masterpiece about two people in Taipei drifting through romance and ambition. Contemporary with Wong Kar-wai's emergence but uses stillness instead of fever to achieve the same emotional precision. A meditation on urban loneliness that feels prophetic.

But Paced like watching someone live their life rather than a film. Nearly plotless and emotionally reserved in ways that demand patience most viewers won't give.

The Apartment1960

A man lends his apartment to his boss for affairs, hoping it will buy him a promotion. Sharp, funny, and then suddenly heartbreaking. Billy Wilder knew how to make you care about people making terrible choices.

But Moves at 1960s pace and relies on romantic comedy conventions that might feel quaint. Some plot threads wrap up with sentiment rather than logic.

8½1963

A director having a creative crisis tries to make sense of his life and his film simultaneously. Surreal, funny, profound. Fellini captures the peculiar chaos of artistic ambition and masculine confusion. Endlessly rewatchable.

But Deliberately disjointed and dream-logic narrative. If you need a straightforward story, this will feel like the director is actively hiding it from you.

City of God2002

A documentary-style immersion into a Rio favela through multiple interconnected lives. Kinetic, brutal, darkly funny. Shows how geography and circumstance trap people into violence. Visually inventive and unforgettable.

But Extremely violent. Quick cuts and rapid narration can feel frenetic rather than immersive. Subtitles required.

A Separation2011

An Iranian couple's divorce unravels into a moral and social minefield. Quietly devastating and philosophically complex. Shows how easily good intentions lead to catastrophe when systems and pride collide.

But Slow-burn tension with no catharsis. If you watch films to feel better, this will leave you wrung out and uncertain about everything.

Mulholland Drive2001

David Lynch's Hollywood nightmare. A woman loses her memory; an aspiring actress loses her way. Hypnotic, cruel, and formally audacious. The ending recontextualizes everything. Genuinely unsettling.

But Deliberately obscure narrative that resists explanation. Watching it twice is almost required, and even then you might just be guessing at meaning.

A Ghost Story2017

Both films use visual formalism and genre trappings to explore emotional displacement. Both are about people searching for something—identity, permanence, meaning—in worlds that resist easy answers. Both prioritize feeling over narrative.

A man dies and returns as a ghost in a sheet, watching his wife grieve and the world pass by. Shot partly in a boxy aspect ratio that feels claustrophobic and formal. Devastating meditation on time, memory, and impermanence. Casper Nolan's most personal work.

But Deliberately static and strange. A scene of a woman eating a pie lasts several minutes. If visual strangeness and philosophical slowness don't engage you, it's unwatchable.

The Sting1973

Both films use style and artifice—color, music, mise-en-scène—as primary characters. Both understand that a playboy or a con artist is defined by surfaces and performance. Both love cinema more than realism.

A grand heist film disguised as a con game disguised as a revenge plot. Scott Joplin's ragtime score, the color palette, the absurdist energy—Scorsese's favorite film for a reason. A masterclass in controlled pleasure and formal invention. Pure fun that respects your intelligence.

But Bouncy and theatrical in a way that some find silly. The con logic is deliberately nonsensical; if you're watching for realism, you'll be frustrated before the opening credits end.