As Tears Go By (1988)

As Tears Go By is the moment you can feel Wong Kar-wai becoming Wong Kar-wai: a crime romance that moves like a heartbeat, all neon color, restless motion, and cutting, music-like editing that turns street corners and late-night silences into pure feeling. It’s a gangster film, yes, but what lingers is the ache underneath—how tenderness keeps trying to break through a life built on loyalty, impulse, and damage. Andy Lau brings wounded restraint, Maggie Cheung is quietly luminous, and Jacky Cheung’s volatility gives the whole picture a live-wire urgency that never lets the air go still. If you’re allergic to tough violence or uneasy moral choices, it may be a hard sit, but if you want a stylish, emotionally bruised Hong Kong classic that hits with both adrenaline and longing, it’s absolutely worth the trip.

As Tears Go By is Wong Kar-Wai trying to marry a bruised, street-level gangster melodrama with a tender, longing romance, and you can already see the mood and visual flair he’d later perfect. The problem is it’s still shackled to a fairly familiar crime formula, with beats you’ll often predict before the characters catch up, and the relationships can feel more like dramatic fuel than fully convincing emotional bonds. If you’re coming for the hypnotic, deeply textured Wong Kar-Wai of his later films, this may register as a stylish rough draft rather than a knockout. But if you can meet it on its own terms—Andy Lau’s weary decency, Jacky Cheung’s volatile energy, and a few genuinely poignant quiet moments with Maggie Cheung do give it real sting between the bursts of violence.