Afei zhengzhuan – Days of being wild

The original painstaking scenario of the film, its conscientious execution and a cast comprising only great and well-known actors made Days of Being Wild a sensation in HongKong itself. There were critics who considered Wong’s lengthy and hence expensive approach a waste of time and money, but most reviews were positive to ecstatic. According to the critic Huang Jlanye, Days of Being Wild is as important to Hong Kong cinema as A bout de souffle was for the Nouvelle Vague.The film has several protagonists and an epic intention with countless story lines. Wong regards the film as the first part of a story which has to be at least twice as long. It focuses on a number of young people in Hong Kong with bonds more or less by chance. Yuddy is a recalcitrant youth who grew up with an adoptive mother without knowing who his real mother is. Yuddy has a relationship with Su Lizhen, but when she indicates she wants to marry him, he leaves her for the nightclub dancer MimiLulu. The policeman and later sailor Tide takes an interest in Su. Before Yuddy’s mother leaves for America with a new husband, she tells Yuddy her secret. He then travels to the Philippines in search of his true parents.The film is set in Hong Kong and on the Philippines in the early sixties. Wang has concentrated especially on evoking an authentic atmosphere; the art direction attended to the finest details. The splendid pictures have justly been praised.