"2046" is a melancholic and sad history of love and memory, of the time that passes; of the desire to recover time past, to recover lost love. A writer seduces women and eventually abandons them when they ask for his love. The women are at first offended and hurt, but reacting with pride. Nevertheless they continue to live in an all-embracing wish to get him and his love back. At later occasions the women try to avoid the memories, not wanting the memories, but him. For his part, the memories are all that are left to him in his solitary existence, where he avoids the enduring relationship with one woman.

When leaving Bai Ling for the last time after she asked him to stay, he takes her hand and says: “… there is one thing, I never lend to anyone”. He turns around and leaves her. He is like the "bird without legs that can only fly and fly, and sleep in the wind when it is tired. The bird only lands once in its life... that's when it dies.", a history that appears again and again in the films of WKW.

2046 is an imaginary place and time. It is the number of the hotel room, where he and Su Li-zhen met in “In the Mood for Love”, now transformed into an imaginary place of a memory of lost love. When he once more in "2046" comes across a hotel room with the same number he wants to move in, but is given the room number 2047.

From the room number 2047 he begins to write the story of the future, an imaginary world of the year 2046 where all the memories are found in a never-changing state. He leaves for 2046, not as himself, but in the body of a Japanese. What he finds is a never-changing world of androids. 2046 is also the year when Hong Kong will be returned to China, perhaps converting the metropolis into a never-changing, imaginary place in the memory of the Hongkongese part of the population.

But the film is not science fiction. It revolves around the present moment, showing how it is in a continuous flux, turning present moments into time past. In the mind, the lost love, represented by gestures, feelings, persons and movements, are not bound to the past, but can reappear in the future. When the protagonist writes the story of 2046, persons from his life tend to reappear in the futuristic world. This imaginary world does not comprise the everyday linear time, but is rather a reservoir, from which the present, ever passing moments can materialize.

The circular movement between the present and the non-present is not only a matter of 2046, but is valid for the films of WKW as such. The movie "2046" circles in time and space, back and forth between the former “worlds” of WKW’s earlier movies, mostly “Days of Being Wild”, “Fallen Angels” and “In the Mood for Love”. Words and gestures are repeated, places and persons reappear, stories are retold – yet a little different. So the world is moving in circles, but the circles are spiraling – always the same, yet a little different.

WKW is famous for finishing his unfinished movies. "2046" is a very accomplished unfinished movie.

"2046" is a very impressive and beautiful movie, photographed by cinematographer Christopher Doyle, with entrancing, sometimes hypnotic, music. The time of the present and the memories are very darkly photographed with large, shadowy frames and glowing colors. Contrary to this, the travel of 2046 is bright with strong vibrant colors. out of