Wong Kar-Wai Films

If you were to try and sum up the strange career of Chinese director Wong Kar-Wai to date you would have to surmise that here is an auteur whose particular interest resides in the moment. A title card at the beginning of – where time can stand still or be momentarily captured but will inevitably succumb to forces larger than the individual. show more >

If you were to try and sum up the strange career of Chinese director Wong Kar-Wai to date you would have to surmise that here is an auteur whose particular interest resides in the moment. A title card at the beginning of In the Mood for Love, one of his undoubted masterpieces (and a film that arguably revolves around the arbitrary nature of romance and the notion of 'the missed moment'), reads: 'It is a restless moment. Hong Kong, 1962.' For Wong Kar-Wai, moments are both personal and historical. Each of his films are powered along by moments, both missed and consummated; protagonists are caught in a constantly evolving space – historically evolving in the likes of the aforementioned In the Mood for Love and the earlier Days of Being Wild, geographically evolving in the case of his most famous film, Chungking Express or his most recent, My Blueberry Nights – where time can stand still or be momentarily captured but will inevitably succumb to forces larger than the individual.

Many of his films sprout from each other (Days of Being Wild was initially part of In the Mood for Love; Fallen Angels was originally the third part of Chungking Express; 2046, his divisive 'sci-fi' sequel to In the Mood for Love; Ashes of Time has just been remodelled as Ashes of Time Redux), and begin, allegedly, without script - a practice that frequently results in delays and controversy (a famous story concerns Maggie Cheung, star of In the Mood for Love, who complained that the lengthy shoot was like a cold she couldn't get rid of). Perhaps most interesting of all, despite the fact that narratively speaking, each of his films are as different from one another as can be (his debut, As Tears Go By, a crime melodrama – Wong Kar-Wai's take on Mean Streets, if you will – was followed by Days of Being Wild, a drama about feckless youth in the 60s, which was followed by Ashes of Time, Wong Kar-Wai's much delayed martial arts epic, which was followed by the neo-noir of Chungking Express... and so on and so forth), you can always tell a Wong Kar-Wai film thanks to the dazzling visual palette (which sometimes comes courtesy of the celebrated Christopher Doyle). Like all film-makers who pursue an intensely personal vision, he doesn't always give his audience what it is they feel that they want; but his films remain uniquely distinct and intensely valuable all the same. < show less