tarrdigrade’s review published on Letterboxd:
Two bodies of magnetic qualities that consist simultaneously of repulsing and attracting poles. Better halves finding their own better halves in a universe that is created to keep them apart, but can't seem to avoid bringing them together at close proximity. This is, in every respect, a story of these two halves and loneliness. Heightened by the direction as Wong Kar-Wai almost obsessively breaks the physical continuity of his shots. Both by using contrasting colors, creating variation of depth and eloquently framing his actors. In almost every scene throughout there is some sort of obstruction that creates a split or just simply leaves out the other half of the shot. He also does a great job in directing the audience focus in an appropriate direction, leaving out details we are not supposed to focus on. Although, paradoxically, that makes me focus on them even more, but still, I'm not given any context to meaningfully focus on these details for too long. Nevertheless, definitely pay attention to the insistence with which the director creates obstructions throughout this entire film, because it seems to me an integral part to understanding his intentions. After that I would pay attention to how most of the scenes, in the beginning at least, brings our main characters together in relatively close proximity effectively contrasting this challenged physical coherence we've been given and expanding from there.
An incredibly graceful and elegant rendition of this relatively simple story, thanks to the acting and the music, but even more so to the direction and camerawork, is what makes this a really worthwhile, melancholic film.