Course:ASIA150/The Footprint of Wong Kar-Wai

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Introduction

Wong Kar-Wai is an acclaimed Hong Kong film director, screenwriter and producer. As a pivotal figure in Hong Kong cinema, an auteur, he is known for his films distinguished by his dreamy cinematography, his non-linear narratives and bold colors. His work has been broadly acclaimed around the world amassing many accolades and praises. Kar-Wai's has been considered a modern auteur with his films becoming a pivotal part of Hong Kong cinema. As well, he has been awarded the Bronze Bauhinia Star an important award given to those, "who have given outstanding service over a long period of time." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bronze_Bauhinia_Star.

Portrait image of Wong Kar-Wai

Life

Early Life

Wong Kar-wai was born in Shanghai, China in 1958 and in 1963 moved to Hong Kong with his mother, his father and siblings remaining in Shanghai. Weekly trips to the cinema with his mother established his interest in film and its universal, visual nature.

  • Wong Kar-wai. “Interview with Wong Kar-wai (Cannes Film Festival, 2001),” interview by Gilles Ciment, in Peter Brunette, Wong Kar-wai, 2005. https://go.exlibris.link/8Fl76QGM A transcription of an interview with Wong Kar-wai regarding In the Mood for Love (2000), Wong's filmmaking process, and his history as a filmmaker. He speaks on his experience with cinema at an early age and the various jobs he held before becoming a director. Interview conducted and available in English. Available as full text online or hard copy via UBC library. Available interview only via public photocopied PDF, although the uploader is unknown (https://pofpa.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/in-the-mood-interview-cannes-2001.pdf)
  • Vivienne Chow. "Wong Kar-wai: The master of 'Hollywood East'", BBC Culture, 2018. https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20181108-wong-kar-wai-the-master-of-hollywood-east Digital news article. Chronology of Wong Kar-wai's life and work citing Chow's (an art journalist) own interview with Wong and others'. Touches on his early life and its relationship to the visual quality of his films. Publicly available in English.

Personal Life

Wong Kar-wai is known for being brief in interviews, only speaking about his personal life through the context of his journey as a filmmaker, very little else.

  • James Mottram. "Wong Kar-Wai interview: the revered film director on returning to his first love - kung fu." The Independent, 2014. https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/wong-karwai-interview-the-revered-film-director-on-returning-to-his-first-love-kung-fu-9905855.html Combined interview and article, published online. Talks about Wong Kar-wai's relationship with marital arts growing up in Hong Kong and his introduction to martial arts and kung fu movies through his mother. Conducted and available in English. Edited minimally in 2015.
  • Laurent Tirard. Moviemakers' Master Class: Private Lessons From the World's Foremost Directors. New York: Faber and Faber, 2002. Brief, edited interview with Wong Kar-wai and Tirard (a filmmaker, screenwriter, and author) where he reiterates the story of his early trips to the cinema and his poverty growing up that prevented him from properly studying film abroad. Wong adds that he largely watched genre films, which contributed to the varying genres of his films. One print copy available in print at UBC's Koerner Library, in English. Translations have been published in Chinese, Arabic, and Spanish.
  • Scott Fineberg. "Wong Kar-wai, Master of Hong Kong Cinema, on His Journey to ‘The Grandmaster’". The Hollywood Reporter, 2013. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/wong-kar-wai-master-hong-609026/ Transcribed interview published as an online article with video clips available on the same page. Focuses on Wong Kar-wai's filmmaking process, music, scripting, etc. particularly in the context of The Grandmaster. He speaks on his relationship with star Tony Leung, his cinematographers, and his production designer. Interview conducted and available in English.
  • Xan Brooks. "How Wong Kar-wai's shades kept me in the dark." The Guardian, 2008. https://www.theguardian.com/film/2008/may/20/cannesfilmfestival.festivals5 Combined film review and interview, published online. Wong discusses his experience as the Jury president of the Cannes Film Festival and other small details of his life. Author seems to have a more personal, biased tone than other interviewers.
  • Rosslyn Hyams. "Wong Kar-Wai dedicates French award to 'my wife, my muse'." Radio France Internationale, 2017. https://www.rfi.fr/en/culture/20171021-hong-kong-film-director-wong-kar-wai-dedicates-his-2017-lumiere-award-his-dedicated Online article on the 2017 Lumière Festival where Wong won the Lifetime Achievement award. In his speech he mentions his wife, Esther (also called Chan Ye-cheng), and calls her his "muse". Article available in English.
  • "Why is Wong Kar Wai so arrogant when he takes actors and stars as 'tool people'?" car.inotgo.com (Car News), 2021. https://car.inotgo.com/2021/11/20211129171751802b.html Article on a car news website about Wong Kar-wai's treatment of actors he works with and his views on their talent. Says that actors "tremble with fear" in his films. Website is in HTML with no navigation features or other context to indicate why a pop culture article would be fitting. Article in English, main website in Chinese.
  • John Powers and Kar-wai Wong. WKW: The Cinema of Wong Kar-wai. New York : Rizzoli, 2016. Book consisting of conversations between Wong and Powers (a film critic and columnist). Addtionally includes behind the scenes photographs of Wong's films. Wong shares details about his personal life; among them, his father's career as a club owner, the street he grew up on acting as inspiration for his films, and his relationship with his son, Cheng. Available in print at UBC's Koerner Library, English only. Translations have been published in Korean and Chinese.

Filmography

A complete list of Wong Kar-Films including those he has written, directed and have involvement in ranging from feature films to documentaries or short films. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0939182/

List of Directed Feature films
Year Film Title
1988 As Tears Go By
1990 Days of Being Wild
1994 Chungking Express
1994 Ashes of Time
1995 Fallen Angels
1997 Happy Together
2000 In the Mood for Love
2004 2046
2007 My Blueberry Nights
2013 The Grandmaster

Acclaimed Works

Wong Kar-Wai made his filmmaking debut in 1988 with "As Tears Go By". Some acclaimed works of Wong Kar-Wai's include Chungking Express, 2046, Happy Together, and more. His most recent work is The Grandmaster, released 2013. His films are primarily in Cantonese and are predominantly set in different neighbourhoods in Hong Kong.

International Work

Wong Kar-Wai’s narratives and cinematography have influenced filmmakers and stories across the world.

Filmmaking

Style

Wong Kar-Wai's films are said to be highly stylized and visually unique and has been established as an auteur:

  • Journal of Asian Pacific Communication, Wong Kar-Wai: An international auteur in Hong Kong film-making, 2002,https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233600597_Wong_Kar-Wai_An_international_auteur_in_Hong_Kong_film-making Explores his international recognition of his films and provides backgrounds on the ideas of his films and showcases his rise in fame in Hong Kong.
  • Nguyen Le Hong Phuc ,Asian Cinema Wong Kar Wai: Auteur, Loneliness, Romance, Colors https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jB1FniGrotc Major Themes and Style that Wong Kar-Wai as an auteur utilizes.
  • Spikima Movies, Why Are Wong Kar-wai Films So Dreamy?. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCDyYd4jEdw Analyzes the tactics utilized by Wong Kar-Wai to create films that have a distinct feeling of timelessness and make the audience nostalgic while watching them. Although the video is in English, both English and Korean subtitles are available.
  • The Sensuous Cinema of Wong Kar-wai: Film Poetics and the Aesthetic of Disturbance: https://muse-jhu-edu.eu1.proxy.openathens.net/book/35845/ Described how the films of Wong Kar-Wai are characterized by their sumptuous yet complex visual and sonic style. This study of Wong’s filmmaking techniques uses a poetics approach to examine how form, music, narration, characterization, genre, and other artistic elements work together to produce certain effects on audiences and how they are permeated by an aesthetic of sensuousness and “disturbance”. Access through UBC Library
  • Geopolitics in Time and Memory: Intertextuality in Wong Kar-wai’s 60’s Trilogy https://www.proquest.com/docview/1317415268?accountid=14656&pq-origsite=summon The research combines criteria from auteur criticism with concepts of geopolitical identity in cultural studies to examine the ‘trilogy’ of Days of Being Wild, In the Mood for Love, and 2046. The relationships and meanings of time and memory in Wong Kar Wai’s films create significant connections between the history and identity of Hong Kong as a uniquely westernized Asian metropolis. Access through UBC Library
  • Five books that influenced the films of Wong Kar Wai https://medium.com/@jameshunter_22058/five-books-that-influenced-the-films-of-wong-kar-wai-ce249643256b A compiled list of five creative works that Wong has cited as major influences.
  • The Independent Photographer. Wong Kar-Wai’s Color Obsession https://independent-photo.com/news/wong-kar-wai-color-obsession/ Describes Wong Kar-Wai's tendency to fill his films visuals with bold saturated colors that carry visual metaphors that deepen the thematic melodrama.

Method

Just like his films, Wong Kar-Wai does not have a conventional method to his filmmaking.

Impact and Influence

The films of Wong Kar-Wai have influenced a new generation of filmmakers.

Reviews and Accolades

Wong Kar-Wai has garnered a wide array of reviews and critical acclaim as well as international awards.

Reviews

Many have reviewed the films of Wong Kar-Wai through a variety of media such as social media, internet forums, blog posts, and scholarly articles

  • Rotten Tomatoes lists "Fallen Angels" (1995) with a rating of 95% fresh tomatoes signifying a high review. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/fallen_angels_hong_kong. The website houses two sections of reviewers, critics and users, with both writing a plethora of comments on Wong Kar-Wai films. Reviewers have stated that "Wong brings tremendous vigor and audacity to the effort, asking us to question the most basic rules of storytelling and commercial filmmaking," Edward Guthmann, San Francisco Chronicle. As well another reviewer, Dennis Schwartz, has expressed the that Kar-Wai is a "brilliant innovative film-maker" with "surreal visual and cool style."
  • In the Spring 2003 issue of Kinema: A Journal for Film and Audiovisual Media, Ethel Chong discusses the "Urban Alienation in Wong Kar-Wai’s Films" through the review of four films. https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/kinema/article/view/1047
  • The online forum website lovehkfilm.com houses many reviews of films made in Hong Kong or directed by individuals from Hong Kong. One post in particular reviews In The Mood For Love (2000),https://www.lovehkfilm.com/reviews/in_the_mood_for_love.htm
  • The Encyclopedia of Chinese Film discusses the impact of important Chinese film-makers and directors with a section dedicated to Wong Kar-Wai. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/10.4324/9780203195550/encyclopedia-chinese-film-zhiwei-xiao-yingjin-zhang-yingjin-zhang (Accessed through UBC). The authors Zhang and Xiao write that Kar-Wai, "occupies a special place in contemporary film history in that he moves effortlessly between the cult and mainstream marketplaces. Though still young, he has exerted a sizeable impact on Taiwanese."
  • Zhihu is an Chinese online content community where users can post questions and others can answer. One post done discusses how one would evaluate (review) Wong Kar-Wai film's with a large discussion beginning. https://www.zhihu.com/question/20702866

Awards

Awards Years won
Hong Kong Film Award for Best Director 1991, 1995, 2014
Hong Kong Film Award for Best Film 2014
Hong Kong Film Award for Best Screenplay 2014
Cannes Best Director Award 1997
César Award for Best Foreign Film 2001
The National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Foreign Language Film 2002
German Film Award for Best Foreign Film 2001
Asian Film Award for Best Director 2014
Silver Condor Award for Best Foreign Film 2006
European Film Award for Best Non-European Film 2000, 2004
Chlotrudis Award for Best Director 2006
British Independent Film Award for Best International Independent Film 2001
Golden Osella for Best Cinematography 1994
Mainichi Film Award for Best Foreign Film 2005

Awards found at https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0939182/awards

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