Achieving "Wong Kar-Wai colors"

In this particular film the image is too artificial, but I would like to know how to achieve the great colors he does on his ealier films ("Fallen Angels" for instance)

I mean, in these films I'm sure they did it chemically (they were shot in the early 90's), but how could one replicate them digitally?
 
It looks like a lot was done with color curves and color replacement,
tastefully keyframed: easy to do in AE, Shake, etc.

I've gotten similar results shooting with colored lights in a dark environment
(although I don't have any recycled "2046" sets ;) to work with), and then
messing with the colors in post. Sometimes compressing the luminosity
brings out a watercolor or cartoon quality. So my guess is that it was shot
with some cool colored lights in the background,
and then everything else was done in post.

Another thing here is colored blurs that are flashed?
Plus the bits of horizontal lens flare on the ear device from time to time.

Oh, and the sitting-on-the-bed scene at 3:20 looks like she was roto'd out
and had her blacks crushed, while the background had the whites overblown.
I'm guessing the through-glass effect was added in post and match-moved
to the dolly move.

I would love to hear other opinions on this.

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