Because the film arrived 24 hours late for its Cannes debut and one of its star actresses, Maggie Cheung, has been reduced to a "special appearance by" role, one can only guess that in the chaos of revisions, re-edits and rethinking, the director lost his narrative thread. The employment of voice-overs and pretentious quotes onscreen to help viewers understand what is going on with the characters only points up how badly the movie gets engulfed in a storytelling fog. With an array of actors including Tony Leung, Gong Li, Zhang Ziyi, Faye Wong and Japanese star Kimura Takuya all handsomely costumed and photographed by no less than three accomplished cinematographers, "2046" will assuredly travel widely.

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