Wong Kar-Wai has made some of the best pop/art films of the past 20 years, and he’s also managed to turn the production of his movies into a kind of performance art, whipping critics and audiences into a frenzy of anticipation before each release. Never has his technique – both on screen and behind the scenes – been better deployed than in his latest release, “2046.”

The cast is stuffed with stars from China (Gong Li and Zhang Ziyi), Hong Kong (Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Faye Wong, Carina Lau, Maggie Cheung), Japan (Takuya Kimura), and Thailand (Thongchai McIntyre, whose role was eventually reduced to a single shot). Filming started and stopped repeatedly, and casting was conducted in total secrecy.

Fuzzy telephoto pictures of cast members being sneaked onto sets filled magazines across Asia for years. An entire set of “2046” was rebuilt after a photographer bribed his way in and snapped some shots. The movie missed its first two screenings at Cannes in 2004, then showed up in the projection booth half an hour before its gala premiere.

A semi-sequel to 2000’s “In the Mood for Love,” “2046” is Mr. Wong’s first foray into science fiction and everyone wanted to know: What was he thinking? “In the Mood for Love” was a chamber piece for two actors – Mr. Leung and Ms. Cheung – playing neighbors in 1960s Hong Kong. Drawn together when their spouses have an affair, Mr. Leung and Ms. Cheung almost sleep together, but probably don’t, and then go their separate ways.

“2046” picks up after the affair. Mr. Leung’s character moves to Singapore in a lovelorn funk and loses all his money gambling. A gambler known as the Black Widow (Gong Li) wins it back for him at the tables, and after an awkward amorous advance, he heads back to Hong Kong and winds up in a hotel room with the same number as the room where he used to meet Ms. Cheung: 2046.

There he writes a sci-fi novel, called “2046,” populated with reimagined figures from his daily life. Hooking up with prostitutes, lusting for people he can’t have, and drinking far too much, Tony drifts through four years, desperate to recapture the heady romance of his near-affair with Ms. Cheung.

“2046” isn’t just a sequel to “In the Mood for Love”; it’s also a sequel to Mr. Wong’s second movie, “Days of Being Wild,” released in 1991. “Days” was the movie with which Wong Kar-Wai first became Wong Kar-Wai. Star ring every notable actor in Hong Kong and set in the 1960s, it failed to set the box office on fire, but is now considered a classic.

Much of “Days” wound up on the cutting room floor, however, and one entire subplot involving Mr. Leung was reduced to a single, enigmatic shot at the very end of the movie. Now, 13 years later, we learn why that shot is there: In “2046” Mr. Leung is going to be linked to all the characters in “Days.”

Indeed, “2046” references almost every movie Mr. Wong has ever made. Faye Wong, the elusive pop star, plays one of Mr. Leung’s girlfriends in “2046.” Her only previous film role of note is in Mr. Wong’s much-loved “Chungking Express,” playing – you guessed it – Mr. Leung’s girlfriend. The sci-fi conceit of a train that takes people to a place where their memories are erased recalls the memory-erasing wine in Mr. Wong’s martial arts epic, “Ashes of Time.” Shots and lines from Mr. Wong’s films appear throughout “2046” like a remix of his entire back catalog.

This kind of deep self-reference is exciting to film buffs, but is it interesting to anyone else? With its American premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival, New Yorkers have a chance to find out.