Happy Together (1997 film)

Happy Together
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese春光乍洩
Simplified Chinese春光乍泄
Literal meaningspring light at first glance
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinChūnguāng zhàxiè
Yue: Cantonese
JyutpingCeon1 gwong1 zaa3 sit3
Directed byWong Kar-wai
Written byWong Kar-wai
Produced byWong Kar-wai
Starring
CinematographyChristopher Doyle
Edited by
Music byDanny Chung
Production
companies
  • Jet Tone Production
  • Block 2 Pictures
  • Seowoo Film Company
  • Prénom H Co. Ltd.
Distributed byGolden Harvest Company
Release dates
  • 17 May 1997 (1997-05-17) (Cannes)
  • 30 May 1997 (1997-05-30) (Hong Kong)
Running time
96 minutes
CountryHong Kong
LanguagesCantonese
Spanish
English
Mandarin
Box officeHK$8,600,141 (HK)
$320,319 (US)

Happy Together (Chinese: 春光乍洩) is a 1997 Hong Kong romantic drama film written-directed by Wong Kar-wai and starring Leslie Cheung and Tony Leung Chiu-wai as a turbulent couple. The English title is inspired by the Turtles' 1967 song, which is covered by Danny Chung on the soundtrack. The Chinese title (previously used for Michelangelo Antonioni's Blowup) is an idiomatic expression suggesting "the exposure of something intimate".

The film was regarded as one of the best LGBT films in the New Queer Cinema movement and received critical acclaim and screened at several film festivals such as the 1997 Toronto International Film Festival; it was nominated for the Palme d'Or and won Best Director at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival.

In 2022, Happy Together was ranked the 225th greatest film of all time in the Sight & Sound critics' poll. In 2016, the film was ranked the 3rd greatest LGBT film of all time in the British Film Institute poll. In 2018, it was ranked the 71st greatest foreign-language film of all time in the BBC poll.