The first time I saw a film by Hong Kong director Wong Kar-Wai, I was confused. Utterly, gloriously confused. It was 1997's Happy Together, about Chinese immigrants adrift in Buenos Aires; a rich, lovelorn odyssey shot both in colour and black and white. It left me bewildered and rather breathless. Not sure what I'd seen but thinking that it was brilliant anyway.

I think this is a typical reaction for most Wong Kar-Wai virgins. His films, from the hyper-real cop classic Chungking Express to last year's award-winning In the Mood for Love, often overload the senses; their moody, colour-saturated scenes and curious pace put the audience in a space of purposeful disorientation and heightened awareness.

Not to say that they're deliberately obtuse or confusing. Rather that they're the kinds of film that benefit from repeat viewings. I can't guarantee that they will make any more sense the second time around but always they become more intriguing, carefully revealing the major themes of Wong's work - alienation, happiness, despair and the impossibility of love. These are stories that unfold on their own unique terms, offering up the same ambiguities as real life. Stories to become entirely obsessed with.

Undoubtedly, Wong Kar-Wai is one of a kind. No other director takes such risks - as with Happy Together, he often works from the flimsiest of scripts - and no one has created such a beguiling visual language.

Working time and time again with the same team - including his director of photography Chris Doyle and actors such as HK superstars Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung - he's a man reaching closer and closer towards his creative peak. His new film, the follow-up to In the Mood for Love, should be released next year and I, alongside many other WKW nerds, cannot wait. Getting lost has never been so rewarding.