“Days of Being Wild,” a rapturous film about cool men, hot women and the thousand and one nights and cigarettes they share, was the second feature directed by Wong Kar-wai and the Hong Kong visionary’s first undisputed triumph.
Days of Being Wild（阿飞正传)is a classic literary film invested and produced by yingzhijie Production Co., Ltd. directed by Wong Kar Wai and starring Zhang Guorong, Zhang Manyu, Carina Lau, Andy Lau and Jacky Cheung. It was released in Hong Kong, China on December 15, 1990.
Based on the real-life of Hong Kong in the early 1960s, the film tells the inner world and emotional entanglements of a lonely and rebellious youth and truly reproduces the living environment and social conditions of ordinary youth in Hong Kong.
In 1991, the film won five awards including best film and best director at the 10th Hong Kong Film Awards. Leslie Cheung won the best actor award at the 10th Hong Kong Film Awards with Days of Being Wild.
Plot of Days of Being Wild
The handsome Xuzai Ah Fei(Zhang Guorong，also starring in Farewell My Concubine) is a Shanghai immigrant. He has never seen his biological mother. He was raised by his adoptive mother (Pan Dihua) since childhood. Therefore, when he grew up, he was ruthless to every woman he met in his life. He lived with Su Lizhen (Maggie Cheung) and Mimi (Carina Lau), the conductor of the South China Sports Association, but later abandoned them one after another.
Days of Being Wild-Still
Xu Zai learned from his adoptive mother that he was an illegitimate son mixed with Spanish and Filipino noble bloodlines. Xu Zai decided to find his biological mother. For this reason, he went to the Philippines alone, but his biological mother refused to see him and left with resentment. Xuzai gives the car to Waizai (Jacky Cheung) before leaving Hong Kong. Mimi finds out that Xu Zai has gone and asks Wai Zai if she knows where he is. Wai Zai tells her that Xu Zai has gone to the Philippines, sells Xu Zai’s car, and gives her the money to go to the Philippines to find Xu Zai.
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The policeman Chao Zai (Andy Lau) who has been secretly in love with Su Lizhen witnessed the break between Su Lizhen and Xu Zai and decided to change his career to run a boat after his mother died. Chao Zai meets Xu Zai again in Philippine Chinatown, but he pretends he doesn’t know him. Soon, Xuzai was seriously injured in a fight because he bought and sold fake passports.
Chao Zai asked him if he remembered what he was doing at 3 p.m. on April 16. Xuzai said he would always remember what he wanted to remember, but he asked Chao Zai to tell Su Lizhen that he didn’t remember. Finally, he watched Xuzai who died on a foreign train. At the same time, another Ah Fei (Liang Chaowei) takes good care of himself and is ready to go out, continuing the story of the legless bird.
Accolades of Days of Being Wild
Award
Category
Result
10th Hong Kong Film Awards
Best Film
Won
Best Director
Won
Best Actor
Won
Best Cinematography
Won
Best Art Direction
Won
37th Asia Pacific Film Festival
Best Actor
Nominated
2nd Golden Bauhinia Awards
Best Hong Kong film of the last 10 years
Won
24th Hong Kong Film Awards
Best 100 Chinese Motion Pictures (#3)
Won
Top 100 Favorite movies of Chinese Cinema (#2)
Won
48th Golden Horse Awards
100 Greatest Chinese-Language Films (#4)
Won
Film Review of Days of Being Wild
“Days of Being Wild,” a rapturous film about cool men, hot women and the thousand and one nights and cigarettes they share, was the second feature directed by Wong Kar-wai and the Hong Kong visionary’s first undisputed triumph.
The New York Times
This paints a highly evocative picture of a steamy and claustrophic world of Brylcreemed hair, Dansettes, stilettos and a youth culture which seems as unmotivated and self-obsessed as the Slacker generation.
The Empire
A tragic, supreme meditation on youth, with an impressionable cast.
IMDb
Days of Being Wild (1990, Wong Kar-Wai) – Ending scene with Tony Leung
