"2046" continues the story of Chow Mo-wan, Leung's character from "In the Mood For Love", though he is considered much colder and very different. Wong found that he did not want to leave the character, and commenced where he left off in 1966; nevertheless, he claimed "It's another story, about how a man faces his future due to a certain past". His plans were vague and according to Teo, he set "a new record in his own method of free-thinking, time-extensive and improvisatory filmmaking" with the production. Scenes were shot in Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Macau, and Bangkok. Actresses Zhang Ziyi and Gong Li were cast to play the women who consume Mo-wan, as the character plans a science fiction novel titled "2046". The film premiered at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival, but Wong delivered the print 24 hours late and still was not happy: he continued editing until the film's October release. It was Wong's most expensive and longest-running project to date. "2046" was a commercial failure in Hong Kong, but the majority of western critics gave it positive reviews. Ty Burr of "The Boston Globe" praised in as an "enigmatic, rapturously beautiful meditation on romance and remembrance", while Steve Erikson of "Los Angeles Magazine" called it Wong's masterpiece.