Xixax Film Forum

he is definately one of my favorite directors.  the first wong kar-wai film i watched was CHUNGKING EXPRESS and it totally changed my life.  i can't even listen to california dreaming without picturing faye wong in my head.  after that i watched FALLEN ANGELS, HAPPY TOGETHER and IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE and fell deeper under the control of wong kar-wai.  i really cn't wait for 2046 to come out.

any thoughts?  opinions?  on wong kar-wai

Quote from: rudieobhe is definately one of my favorite directors.  the first wong kar-wai film i watched was CHINGKING EXPRESS and it totally changed my life.

How so?

The first time I saw Chungking Express (which wasn't that long ago), I had been up for almost twenty four hours and was barely able to maintain consiousness...that I did is solely because the movie was so good (although a whole lot of it was lost on me, I'll admit). Second viewing : brilliance.

I'd already seen In The Mood For Love, and loved it. Now I'm moving on to the rest of his repertoire.

On a similar note, Chris Doyle is one of my very favorite cinematographers. His style is just unmistakable and beautiful.

Quote from: Duck Sauce

Quote from: rudieobhe is definately one of my favorite directors.  the first wong kar-wai film i watched was CHUNGKING EXPRESS and it totally changed my life.

How so?

first off, i meant to write CHUNGKING EXPRESS and not CHINGKING EXPRESS.  (the U and the I are next to eack other on the keyboard.)

well, i never really seen a film quite like it.  it had a lot of energy and a lot of excitment.  it was one of the first films i saw that was art to me.  i became obsessed with CHUNGKING EXPRESS.  i loved the repeated themes and the repeated imagery in both stories.  i remember tarantino talking about how wong kar-wai made a sequal to CHUNGKING EXPRESS called FALLEN ANGELS and i became obessed with trying to find it.  i found it probably 2 years ago being sold @ a blockbuster.  i later found out that he doesn't write scripts.  i really love his repeated themes and symbolism throughout all of his films.  (exparation dates, pineapple and the act of cleaning apartments) wong kar-wai is a huge influence on me as a filmmaker.  i really love his style and his energy and i try to incorporate that into my films.

Quote from: rudieobfirst off, i meant to write CHUNGKING EXPRESS and not CHINGKING EXPRESS.  (the U and the I are next to eack other on the keyboard.)

But the 'H' and the 'K' aren't.

Quote from: MacGuffin

But the 'H' and the 'K' aren't.

wat due eu want frem me, eye kan"t phuckin" tipe!!

Anyone see his video for that DJ Shadow song, Six Days (I think that's what it was called). Pretty cool.

I heard that just a month or so ago he decided to restart shooting 2046 almost completely from scratch. Can you imagine having that kind of creative freedom? Wow. I guess PTA kinda did that with PDL.

I've seen In The Mood For Love twice and recently I watched Chungking Express. The use of western music in both is hypnotic, as is Tony Cheung. What I really love, though, is the elusive narrative. In The Mood the second time round gave me a completely different perspective, cause there's was so much that had snuck by me the first time round. Chungking Express I will have to see again cause I have a feeling this will also be the case. When I saw it I did fall asleep after the first 20 mins (not because of the movie), and when I returned it was like seeing a different film. I have to revisit to work out how the two sets of characters interrelate. Beautiful, sly and philosophical.

Fox Searchlight Pictures has entered into a partnership with Hong Kong movie scribe, helmer and producer Wong Kar-wai. Under the terms of the pact, Searchlight and Wong's Block 2 Films will develop a minimum of three English-lingo films that Searchlight and Block 2 will co-finance and co-distribute. Pics will be produced by Wong and Block 2, with Wong selecting the directors and supervising the screenwriters on each project. Claudia Lewis, exec VP of production at Searchlight, will oversee the projects.

Fox Searchlight prexy Peter Rice praised the helmer's "gift for creating films that transcend cultural boundaries."

Despite a considerable body of Chinese-lingo feature work -- his 2000 feature "In the Mood for Love" was distribbed Stateside by USA Films -- the Shanghai-born helmer is probably best known in the States for a short film, "The Follow," part of the BMW Films series "The Hire" that starred Clive Owen as a mysterious chauffeur. Anonymous Content produced "The Follow" and four other BMW shorts in 2001, raising the helmer's profile in town considerably.

Now, two years later, Anonymous is trying to do the same: Wong's manager at Anonymous, Paul Schwartzman, engineered the co-financing and distribbing pact for Wong at Searchlight.

Explaining his attraction to Searchlight, Wong called the specialty arm "an admirable and positive force in the global film industry" because Rice and his team "are not afraid to push the envelope."

Currently, Wong is in post-production on "2046" and "Eros," a three-part film project directed by Wong, Steven Soderbergh and Michelangelo Antonioni that will premiere in 2004 but is not part of the Searchlight pact.

I have seen IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE.  For one of my classes I have to choose either In the Mood for Love, Hsiao-hsien's Flowers of Shanghai or Kiarostami's The Wind Will Carry Us and do a paper on it.

anyone else have trouble being entertained by in the mood for love?

Quote from: pookiethecatanyone else have trouble being entertained by in the mood for love?

nope

well skin me alive and call me luggage.  something is clearly wrong with my film tastes.

Quote from: pookiethecatwell skin me alive and call me luggage.  something is clearly wrong with my film tastes.

No, i just think that Kar wai is the kind of filmmaker you love or hate...

I believe In the mood for love is one of the best Love Stories from cinema... and as ghostboy said Christopher Doyle made an increduble job... all the lines and colours are flawless...

Also the score is awesome and Maggie Cheung is a delight...I heard she will make memories of a gueixa ...hope is true , cuz she is the soul from this film.

Days of Being Wild is pretty interesting if you can find it (it took me forever).  Still meaning to get Ashes of Time-- I have to see what the hell he was escaping to make Chungking Express.

So, since I am doing a paper on In the Mood for Love, the film has REALLY  grown on me and it really is a masterpiece.  I just saw Chungking Express and wow, another great film.  I liked the 2nd story the best.  Next is Happy Together for me to watch.

Wong Kar-Wai is definitely one of the best directors working today.  Top 5.

if you liked CHUNGKING EXPRESS then you should check out FALLEN ANGELS, the sequel.  also check out DAYS OF BEING WILD, thats another good one.  2046 is coming soon and i can't fuckin' wait for that shit.  WKW is my favorite filmmaker ever!!!  his genius mirrors mine!

Quote from: rudieobif you liked CHUNGKING EXPRESS then you should check out FALLEN ANGELS, the sequel.  also check out DAYS OF BEING WILD, thats another good one.  2046 is coming soon and i can't fuckin' wait for that shit.  WKW is my favorite filmmaker ever!!!  his genius mirrors mine!

Are you Tarantino?

There's all this word of him restarting 2046 over from scratch at least once. Whenever it eventually comes to DVD, I hope it has a great making-of doc.

Also, it'll feature Jean Yves Escoffier's final work as a cinematographer...reason enough to see it right there.

Shaftr, doesn't that Cranberries song kick ass now? I was totally sick of it until I saw Chungking Express.

Quote from: Ghostboy
Shaftr, doesn't that Cranberries song kick ass now? I was totally sick of it until I saw Chungking Express.

Yes it does.  I love the Cranberries but I think it is only b/c I don't own anything of theirs and only hear them when someone else plays them.

D'ya guys think I'm okay to blind buy In The Mood For Love? I liked (not loved) Chungking Express...

It's one of the most expensive Criterions. Are the extras good?

Quote from: SoNowThenD'ya guys think I'm okay to blind buy In The Mood For Love? I liked (not loved) Chungking Express...

It's one of the most expensive Criterions. Are the extras good?

There are 2 very good essays on it.  There is a documentary on it's creation (which I haven't seen yet).  There are interviews, etc.  Nothing fun, but everything is interesting.

The movie is worth a blind buy alone.

Quote from: SHAFTR

Quote from: rudieobif you liked CHUNGKING EXPRESS then you should check out FALLEN ANGELS, the sequel.  also check out DAYS OF BEING WILD, thats another good one.  2046 is coming soon and i can't fuckin' wait for that shit.  WKW is my favorite filmmaker ever!!!  his genius mirrors mine!

Are you Tarantino?

ya know, for a second there...  yeah, I thought I was....

Quote from: Weak2ndActDays of Being Wild is pretty interesting if you can find it.

I just watched this the other night. It's interesting, but I didn't really like it -- I think it was his first move towards his current style, and so it's kinda rough (I haven't seen anything he's done prior to this, so my observations may be incorrect).

I also finally saw Fallen Angels, and it is incredible!  Such a vibrant rush.

check out AS TEARS GO BY, his first film.  i can't stress enough how great and beautiful HAPPY TOGETHER is....

The Six Days video is cool as hell. You can download it off KaZaA if you don't want the DVD single. It stars Chang Chen (Happy Together, 2046) and model Danielle Graham. There are two versions, actually. One is the regular film print and another has a very different but still beautiful chromatic scheme. I've seen a lot of music videos in my time but they don't compare to this...Something else to take in is "The Follow" BMW film. Wong's take is a character-driven short, not loops of fast, shiny cars. He's also done a commercial for Motorola (you can download it at http://www.shinboro.com/~alexyoo, and a commercial for Lacoste (http://www.lacoste.com/_com_/). The Motorola commercial is pretty fast-paced and technological, and the Lacoste one is called "In the Mood for Lacoste", and is a slower, melodic piece. Both feature one man and one woman with an interest in love (What did you expect?  ).
Eros comes out soon, too – one third of it was done by WKW . Chang Chen and Gong Li star. It's about sex and love. Michaelangelo Antonioni and Steven Soderbergh made the other parts of it, but we all know which one is best  And of course 2046 next year, which is in production/post-production now - Kar-wai and several of the cast members (Tony, Faye, Chang, etc, and Christopher Doyle held a press conference last month to discuss it (they're doing more shooting in Shanghai). Also hot on his heels is the 3-picture (producing/development) deal with Fox Searchlight inked a couple of months ago.

wong kar-wai is hit-and-miss for me.  I can't stress enough how much I loved Happy Together, but other films like Fallen Angels or Ashes of Time just felt too childish.
I just saw this film made by another hit-and-miss Hong Kong director named Tsui Hark (when he misses, he misses MISERABLY, like Van Damme's Double Team) and he made this film titled "The Blade", which was his reaction after watching Ashes of Time and thought the film was pretentious and naive.  He made a film that also employed a lot of French New Wave-style voice-over narration and all that crazy handheld stuff, but I think everyone should check out The Blade.  That movie is BADASS.

i dunno, for my money, you have to watch his films in chronological order.  you can see how he becomes a great filmmaker and storyteller.  in order:

AS TEARS GO BY
DAYS OF BEING WILD
ASHES OF TIME
CHUNGKING EXPRESS
FALLEN ANGELS
HAPPY TOGETHER
IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE
2046

From aintitcool

Just when people started speculating whether one would have to wait until the year 2046 for Wong Kar-Wai's ballyhooed 2046, earlier this week, official news came from Beijing Xin Ying Lian Film Co., the film's Mainland China distributor that the super high budgeted, super star studded movie had been scheduled for a May Day Holiday theater release. More than four years after he launched the project, Wong and the crew are wrapping up the marathon shoot in Shanghai. The Chungking Express director will fly to France in February and meet with his post production team, which reportedly has been working on special effects and editing for some time. Western audiences should expect a grand premiere at this year's Cannes Film Festival.            

In trademark Wong Kar-Wai fashion, cast and crew members did not follow the script during the filming simply because there was no script to begin with. The plot was only briefly explained to cinematographer Christopher Doyle. 2046 marks the sixth time that Doyle (The Quiet America, Rabbit-Proof Fence) has worked on a Wong film. The ensemble cast features on-screen dynamic duos Tony Leung/Maggie Cheung (In the Mood for Love), Zhang Ziyi/Chang Chen (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), Japanese heartthrob Takuya Kimura and Canto-pop siren Faye Wong (Chungking Express).          

The story centers around a writer during his stay in a hotel room numbered 2046. He is befuddled and at the same time inspired by the relationships he witnessed, between men and women, love and sex, and past and future. It is rumored that Faye has posed nude for the sex scenes. However, according to Tony Leung, who got down and dirty with Leslie Cheung in the auteur's Happy Together, "it is nothing like what people think. (The film) was shot with subtlety. Besides the bed, you can't see anything". He added, "The director is amazing. He is adding something new to the film every day. So it is not over until it is in theaters." Even though no one has an idea what the final cut will look like, one thing is for sure: the long wait for us fans will finally come to an end!

I just saw In The Mood For Love. I blind bought it based on equal parts good word of mouth on here, watching and enjoying Chungking Express, and lastly, trusting Criterion.

I LOVE this movie. Quite honestly, I'm floored. I just felt amazing, from start to finish. Y'know where you get that feeling that you're just going along with something, no need to second guess or think, just riding emotions the whole way...

There were a few things I didn't get however, because I'm not very much of a recent history kinda guy. Could somebody explain the DeGaulle visit, and the Cambodia trip, in context of that timeframe?

WKW is one of the greatest director's of our time IMO.  I saw Fallen Angels a few years ago and absolutely loved it.  \
My favorites in order:

1.Fallen Angels
2.Chungking Express
3.ITMFL
4.Days of Being Wild
5.Happy Together
6.As Tears Go By
7.Ashes of Time

sadly Ashes of Time is at the bottom due to the fact that their are no decent releases of this film on dvd w/eng subs.  The Mei Ah version has the damn double subs (eng/chi) and the World Video version may be up their ranking as one of the worst discs of all-time.

I recently purchased a documentary on Happy Together which has some great stories and interviews with WKW, Chris Doyle and the cast.  Very informative and also helps show you how often WKW changes his mind during filming which is probably why all of his movies seem to take so long now-a-days.

Can anyone tell me what format(s) Days of Being Wild and As Tears Go By are available in in the US?  Are they available in the US?  And are they worth looking for/spending lots of money to acquire?  

I've loved everything Wong has done from Chungking Express to present (that BMW film he did was my favorite of those) but I couldn't get into Ashes of Time (maybe it was my mood that day).  How do the other two compare to his later works?

Has anyone heard any advanced reviews of 2046. I'm really looking forward to this film but I'm a little worried now that it didn't win anything at Cannes. Especially since Tarantino was head of the Jury.

Quote from: LostEraserHas anyone heard any advanced reviews of 2046. I'm really looking forward to this film but I'm a little worried now that it didn't win anything at Cannes. Especially since Tarantino was head of the Jury.

Ebert said it was dissapointing, as did his IFC co host on the closing ceremonies, Annette Isdborff (sp?). I haven't heard any reviews, but yea, with Tarantino as President, first word isn't that good.

I usually defend him, but Ebert's been on a real shitty downhill slide taste-wise the last two years.

Keep in mind this movie didn't have all its effects finished, probably wasn't fully color-timed, etc etc. Or maybe it sucked. Or maybe it wasn't political/leftist enough.

I was actually looking for reviews today on the film.  Here is about the only thing I found (atleast from a respectable source)

http://film.guardian.co.uk/cannes2004/story/0,14498,1221756,00.html

Remember, though, he was rushing to finish the film to get it to even be screened at Cannes in the first place.  Maybe it was a rough cut, and that's what was so disappointing about it.  I hope so, as the premise sure sounded promising, and what I've seen of In the mood for love was great as well.

http://movies.yahoo.com/cannes/news/vac/20040521/108516480900.html

http://www.screendaily.com/story.asp?storyid=17781&r=true

http://www.thehollywoodreporter.com/thr/reviews/review_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000516927

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1941&ncid=790&e=10&u=/variety/20040521/va_fi_re/2046      (this one i know has spoilers, not sure about any of the others, so be warned)

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040521.wcanne22/BNStory/Entertainment

Quote from: The Gold TrumpetEbert said it was dissapointing

But if you look up Ebert's Chicago Sun Times reviews of Chungking Express, Fallen Angels, and In the Mood For Love, he gives them all 3 stars but he doesn't appear to be particularly jazzed about Wong's work to begin with.

At least not as jazzed as he should be, considering that he gave "Back to the Beach" 3 1/2 stars (I guess it had enough political/leftist rhetoric to curry favor with Ebert, right, SNT?   :wink: )

Yea, but Tarantino loves Wong Kar Wai and he didn't give 2046 anything at cannes. that's what has me worried.

Quote from: LostEraserYea, but Tarantino loves Wong Kar Wai and he didn't give 2046 anything at cannes. that's what has me worried.

Very true and I'm concerned as well because of that.  But I can't fathom a "bad" Wong Kar Wai film.  He seems to know what he wants so well that if it's disappointing, even to his fans, (to paraphrase Soderbergh in Schizopolis) it's probably our fault, not his.  

I'm sure that the Cannes cut will be retooled until about 5 minutes before it is distributed, not because of the lukewarm reception but because Wong was going to recut it anyway.  It sounds like he rushed this print out just to get people to shut up about him taking until 2046 to finish it.  According to imdb, it's coming out in Finland in August, the UK in October and Germany in January.  I don't know how much time is mandatory between locking the print and its release anywhere but, assuming he intends to make that August release date, he has some time to tweak it more, if that's his intent.

This post is brought to you by my denial that Wong Kar Wai might actually have made a bad flick.

Also, I don't know what I was thinking the day that I posted that the BMW film he did was my favorite of his work.  That's just not true.  Fallen Angels is, hands down.

My friend was telling me that Wong Kar Wai kept re editing his film during the actual festival and had to re schedule his showing twice during it which, of course, is unheard of at cannes. It eventually ended up being one of the last films played. Does anyone know if this is true? He says he thinks this is maybe why it didn't win anything. Maybe some members of the jury felt bitter about all that. Also, I guess even if Tarantino loved the film all the memebers of the Jury have to agree, right? So I guess if he couldn't convince them it was a good film then that's that. I'd be curious what he thought of it though since he's always been such a great Kar Wai supporter. I can't wait to see the final cut.

I think I heard Tarantino say that if there was a prize for cinematography, that maybe 2046 would get it, maybe not.
I am however excited about Old boy, I saw some clips and it looks bloody sweet.

If you like In The Mood For Love, you *may* like Springtime In A Small Town. Admittedly, it's a notch below the Wong Kar Wai movie but it shares the same cinematographer and the story's similar. It's one of those films where the cinematography informs us of the psychological state of the characters. Some may find this one moves too slowly though but there are some bits in it that's good.

foray

Kino International Picks up Four for Fall/Winter Release
Source: indieWIRE

Kino International padded its theatrical line-up for this coming autumn and winter with the announcement of four acquisitions Friday. New York-based Kino will release Korean director E J-Yong's "Untold Story," Wong Kar-wai's "Days of Being Wild," Manoel de Oliveira's "A Talking Picture," and Israeli doc "Watermarks" by Yaron Zilberman. "Watermarks" is slated for a February, 2005 release, while the others will open in New York throughout the fall. Kino has all rights to the films, except cable rights for "A Talking Picture" (Sundance Channel), and "Watermarks" (HBO/Cinemax).

Wong Kar-wai's 1991 film, "Days of Being Wild," which premiered in the U.S. at New Directors/New Films in 1991, has been rarely seen in the states. The film is set in 1960s Hong Kong, and shot by Christopher Doyle ("Hero," "In the Mood for Love"), the first of several collaborations between Doyle and Wong. "Wild" also introduced actress Maggie Cheung ("In the Mood for Love," "2046") to many audiences, and also features the late Leslie Cheung ("Happy Together," "Farewell My Concubine"). Kino describes the feature as "the first of several masterpieces of unattainable love." The film will open New York's Film Forum November 19th.

WKW Box Set!!!!

This might tide me over until 2046 comes out in the US.  Might.

(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.kino.com%2Fimages%2Fproduct%2F216%2F823.jpg&hash=10b6a6953df6d1ceeed065d3b0f0f32ef850e460)

KINO ON VIDEO TO RELEASE THE WONG KAR-WAI COLLECTION FOR THE FIRST TIME ON DVD

Kino on Video is proud to release an unprecedented box set collecting five feature films from acclaimed writer/director Wong Kar-Wai. Releasing for the first time on VHS and DVD two of Mr. Wong's acclaimed early films (As Tears Go By and Days of Being Wild) Kino on Video's WONG KAR-WAI COLLECTION also brings new DVD editions of Happy Together and Fallen Angels, both specially re-mastered for this set. Chungking Express, made available by a special arrangement with BUENA VISTA HOME VIDEO, completes this unprecedented collection of featured films directed by one of the most regarded film auteurs of our time.

Each DVD (with the exception of Chungking Express) will be sold separately with a SRP of $29.95. The five-film WONG KAR-WAI COLLECTION is priced at 99.95 and will be available to the general public on October 19th, 2004.

As Tears Go By and Days of Being Wild were both written and directed by Wong Kar-Wai and are considered to be two of his most daring and poetic feature films (Days is certainly as acclaimed as his later works Happy Together and In the Mood for Love). Both feature films display, for the first time in Mr. Wong?s career, some of the motifs and aesthetic sensibilities that are widely seen as his trademarks.

The first of many collaborations between the director and superstar Maggie Cheung, As Tears Go By is often compared to the early work of Martin Scorsese for its viceral depicion of young mobsters. Days of Being Wild marks the first joint effort between Mr. Wong and acclaimed cinematographer Christopher Doyle (In the Mood for Love and Rabbit-Proof Fence). Mr. Doyle has lensed all feature films directed by Wong Kar-Wai since Days of Being Wild.

   
Kino on Video's WONG KAR-WAI COLLECTION also brings recently re-mastered editions of other two titles previously available from Kino on Video: Fallen Angels and Happy Together. Wong Kar-Wai's use of saturated colors and kinetic camera work can be better appreciated in these two new editions made from new transfers. Kino's newly remastered Fallen Angels is a cinematic ballet (choreographed to perfection) of rage, dark-humor and desire performed by a contract killer (Leon Lai Ming) and the female agent (Michele Reis) who books his assignment.

Kino's Special Edition DVD of Happy Together, also made from a recent high-quality transfer, premieres the fascinating feature film BUENOS AIRES ZERO DEGREES, which documents the making of this cinematic masterpiece set in dazzling Buenos Aires. The story of a gay couple strongly connected to each others abusive and sometimes violent display of affection, Happy Together combines moments of incredible subtlety with histrionic rage and stands as one of Wong Kar-Wai's strongest depictions of contemporary violence and alienation--here inseparably intertwined with human affection.

     
DAYS OF BEING WILD

In his first hypnotic backward glance at Hong Kong in 1960, Wong Kar Wai creates a post-modern LA RONDE set in a fluorescent labyrinth of cool desperation and unfulfilled need. Against the echoing rhythms of period rumbas, DAYS OF BEING WILD tracks a half dozen characters through their individual searches for intimate connection. Collaborating for the first time with cinematographer Christopher Doyle, Wong Kar Wai's restless visual imagination decorates this dreamlike fable with characteristic muted extravagance. DAYS OF BEING WILD offers an intoxicating cocktail of lush nostalgia and bitter alienation equaled only by Wong Kar Wai's subsequent films.

Star crossed Asian film icon Leslie Cheung (FAREWELL MY CONCUBINE, HAPPY TOGETHER) plays Luddy, a devastatingly handsome Hong Kong lothario who seduces and forsakes women without compunction. Abandoned at birth, Luddy's self-destructive search for love is really a Quixotic quest for a feeling of permanence and a sense of identity. When Luddy beguiles lovely shop girl Su Lizen, he unknowingly sets in motion a sequence of broken hearts and unremembered promises that climaxes in naked obsession, inadvertent self-discovery and shocking violence.

In possibly her most seminal performance, Maggie Cheung (IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE, AS TEARS GO BY) invests Su Lizen with ethereal beauty and street level vulnerability. With a supporting cast of Hong Kong cinema notables, including Andy Lau (FULLTIME KILLER, AS TEARS GO BY) as Su's policeman confessor, and frequent Wong collaborator Tony Leung (IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE, HAPPY TOGETHER), DAYS OF BEING WILD's visionary audacity and deep romantic conviction sustains and rewards multiple viewings.  

SPECIAL FEATURES

A Wong Kar Wai Trailer Gallery
Stills Gallery
Filmographies
Optional English subtitles
Enhanced for 16x9 TVs

1991   Hong Kong   89 min   Color   Letterboxed (1.85:1)
In Cantonese with optional English subtitles

AS TEARS GO BY

Though as gritty as any 80's Hong Kong gangster picture, AS TEARS GO BY is a watershed film heralding one of the most auspicious directorial debuts in international cinema. Wong Kar Wai's visually stunning, tough and romantic 1988 first feature deftly smuggles the director's now celebrated genius into an incendiary "Heroic Bloodshed" street opera.

Already stretched to breaking in a loyalty tug of war between Triad bosses and his loose cannon partner, Wah (Andy Lau - FULLTIME KILLER, DAYS OF BEING WILD), a rising star in the HK underworld, finds himself saddled with beautiful, ailing country cousin Ngor. As an escalating test of wills with a stubborn debtor explodes into bloodshed and a mob turncoat instigates a ruthless police crackdown, Wah's growing fascination with Ngor becomes his last chance for escape from a violent past and a dubious future.

Cast in comic eye candy roles prior to AS TEARS GO BY, Maggie Cheung (IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE) cites Ngor, her first of many collaborations with Wong Kar Wai, as the character that truly began her dramatic career. Under Wong Kar Wai's direction, Jacky Cheung (DAYS OF BEING WILD) earned the 1988 Honk Kong Film Awards Best Actor Award for his portrayal of Wah's guilt-ridden, out of control partner Fly. Balancing epiphanous imagery with experimentation and realism with brazen romanticism, Wong Kar Wai's AS TEARS GO BY offers a tantalizing glimpse into the nascent brilliance of one of the most influential filmmaking talents of the last twenty years.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

A Wong Kar Wai Trailer Gallery
Stills Gallery
Filmographies
Optional English subtitles
Enhanced for 16x9 TVs

102 min   Color   Letterboxed (1.85:1)
In Cantonese with optional English subtitles

FALLEN ANGELS

Acknowledged throughout the world as one of the most important directors working today, Wong Kar-Wai (HAPPY TOGETHER, ASHES OF TIME) has developed a signature style that employs bold, experimental use of photography, music, and editing to capture the tension of the approaching millennium. Originally intended to be a third story in his now classic CHUNGKING EXPRESS, FALLEN ANGELS has emerged as what some critics have come to consider his "quintessential work."

Set in the neon-washed underworld of present day Hong Kong, FALLEN ANGELS intertwines two exhilarating tales of love and isolation. First, there?s the unconsummated love affair between a contract Killer (Leon Lai Ming) and the ravishing female Agent (Michele Reis) who books his assignments and cleans up after his jobs. When the Killer decides that he must move on, he leaves her with only a coin for the jukebox and instructions to play song number 1818 - "Wang Ji Ta" ("Forget Him").

Ex-convict Ho (Takeshi Kaneshiro) stopped speaking at the age of five after eating a date-expired can of pineapple. He lives with his father, who runs a guesthouse where the Agent is in semi-permanent residence. Ho makes a living by re-opening shops that have closed for the night and intimidating customers into buying goods and services from him. After an awkward romance with a girl named Cherry, Ho finds himself all the more alone.

Wong Kar-Wai brings these parallel storylines together in a blitz of ultra-hip style and classical cinematic  sensibilities. A poet of modern alienation, Mr. Wong's universe is populated with characters both dark and comic, magical and existential; FALLEN ANGELS is both a vie at revolutionary cinema and an homage to a love for movies.

Special Features:

A Wong Kar-Wai Trailer Gallery
Stills Gallery
Filmographies
Optional English subtitles
Enhanced for 16x9 TVs

HAPPY TOGETHER

Winner of the Best Director prize at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival, Wong Kar-Wai's HAPPY TOGETHER is a cinematic balancing act, a stunning display of filmmaking style and a touching love story evenly mixed into one film. Hong Kong and world cinema have never seen anything quite like it.

Tony Leung and Leslie Cheung, two of Hong Kong's biggest stars, play a pair of gay lovers living out the waning days of their relationship as expatriates in Buenos Aires. Together with Australian Christopher Doyle, Wong's longtime cinematographer, the director discovers a city rich with diverse cultural influences. HAPPY TOGETHER reveals a corner of the world alive with intimate colors and an astounding array of sounds. Even more striking, though, is the way that such an international collaboration brings to life a romance that is both realistic and universal. Ho and Lai are characters who are instantly identifiable, who play the roles and experience the dynamics that all couples go through in the course of a relationship. Lusty tango bars, the salsa music of the La Boca sidewalks, and a hypnotic visit to the nearby Iguazu Falls give further dimension to the tensions growing between the two lovers.

Wong Kar-Wai (CHUNGKING EXPRESS, FALLEN ANGELS) has made with HAPPY TOGETHER his most accomplished work: A modern film, made by an auteur with a distinctive signature, which contains equal amounts of cinematic beauty and penetrating drama. Here Kar-Wai has crafted a rare art film that cements his international reputation as a world-class director.

Special Features:

"Buenos Aires Zero Degrees"
(59 min, Color, in Cantonese with English subtitles) A fascinating and revealing documentary about Wong Kar-Wai and the making of HAPPY TOGETHER.
A Wong Kar-Wai Trailer Gallery
Stills Gallery AND Filmographies
A Print Interview with Wong Kar-Wai
Optional English subtitles o Enhanced for 16x9 TVs

I'm only after that Happy Together disc.

2046 french trailer:

http://www.ocean-films.com/2046/FA_2046_320.mov

also kino is releasing DAYS OF BEING WILD in america:

http://www.apple.com/trailers/independent/daysofbeingwild.html

plus the wong kar-wai dvd collection

october = rudie's wong kar-wai wet dream!!

I haven't seen many of his films, only two actually.

Chungking Express and In The Mood For Love.

What I appreciate with this type of filmmaking or these types of films are it's subtle approach to love-stories. It demands that everyone in the audience has loved and lost in love, had their heart broken.
Only then can you appreciate and sense the intoxicating spirit. That's intelligent cinema for me. When the film demands something.
How Hollywood film romances work is that if you don't know love you are forced to engage because of the beautiful people, flattering lighting and the over-produced orchestrated score.
When films demand something it's a much more intimate experience, like it talks to me individually. I think this is what Charlie Kaufmans talked about, communicating with every person in the audience individually, not with the audience as a group.

Quote from: kotteWhat I appreciate with this type of filmmaking or these types of films are it's subtle approach to love-stories. It demands that everyone in the audience has loved and lost in love, had their heart broken.
Only then can you appreciate and sense the intoxicating spirit. That's intelligent cinema for me.

You need to check out Wong's Happy Together immediately.

Found this music video (http://www.anonymouscontent.com/vids/wkar-wai_dj_6d.swf) online, for a song called "6 Days" by DJ Shadow, and it's directed by Wong Kar Wai.  It looks like scenes from a movie-  anyone recognize it?  I've only seen 2046, and it's not that.

2LB

Quote from: Two Lane BlacktopFound this music video (http://www.anonymouscontent.com/vids/wkar-wai_dj_6d.swf) online, for a song called "6 Days" by DJ Shadow, and it's directed by Wong Kar Wai.  It looks like scenes from a movie-  anyone recognize it?  I've only seen 2046, and it's not that.

2LB

it's just a music video. jb likes it.

I just watched Days of Being Wild, yet another great Wong Kar-Wai film.  I just have As Tears Go By, Ashes of Time and 2046 left.

Quote from: SHAFTRI just watched Days of Being Wild, yet another great Wong Kar-Wai film.  I just have As Tears Go By, Ashes of Time and 2046 left.

ASHES OF TIME is not so great.  you may be disappointed as i was when i first saw it...

2046 comes out on august 5th in the US.  for some reason i believe it may win the oscar for best foreign film award.

here's the trailer:
http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony/2046.html

saw Chungking Express last night.  i liked it, probably more than i should've.  the first story was okay but i really liked the second one.  i liked the guy in the first one but i HATED the girl.  but the second one had tony leung!  AND faye wong who is the asian shannon sossamon!  (or vice versa).  but anyways, it was crazy how they kept playing the same song like 1000 times and again i preffered the mamas and the papas much more than the reggae-ish one in the first story.  the writing seemed a little immature/film school-y and the blurry camera stuff was a little much.  but it still left me with a good feeling.

yeah I think filmmakers like Wong KarWai prove that the rhythm of the film can be so important that if it has a good pace/ rhythm the audience can forgive a lot of pretentiousness and indulgence and lack of logic.

Hong Kong's poet of regret
Witness to relentless change, director Wong Kar-Wai contemplates memory and missed opportunities.
By Scott Timberg, Times Staff Writer

(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.calendarlive.com%2Fmedia%2Fphoto%2F2005-07%2F18603286.jpg&hash=272e82449d52d0b6eaad06821864bcb627777933)

The impassive Hong Kong director Wong Kar-Wai, blinking behind sunglasses that almost never come off and shrouded in his own cigarette smoke, tends to pause before speaking. He offers slow, thoughtful answers about film and filmmaking in accented English.

When asked, though, what he might do if he weren't making movies, he doesn't waste time. "I'd like to be a bartender," he said. "It would be very specific: It would have to be happy hour, or else very late at night. People go to bars to speak up — to tell you their stories." Happy-hour patrons would be full of boasting, flirting and good cheer. "And by the time it was late, they would be quite drunk," perhaps overcome by loneliness and despair. "They would tell you something quite deep — or else nonsense."

Wong's career — the last few years of which have been consumed with an odd, exquisite movie called "2046," which opens in Los Angeles on Aug. 5 — has been shaped a bit like a night at the tavern. While much of his work is of a piece, marked by a strikingly un-ironic romanticism, his early films were about fleeting moments — the restless, reckless spirit of being young. And he seems, since 2000's aching "In the Mood for Love," to be increasingly concerned with memory, regret and missed opportunities.

He's become a kind of Hong Kong Proust, combining the kinetic movement and hallucinatory night life of his home city with a ruminative style and a growing concern with our inability to capture lost time.

Wong's films are closer to Italian and French art cinema, crossed with American film noir, than the action movies associated with his hometown: His stories are told through gesture and indirection, and what's outside the frame can be more important than what's in it. Village Voice critic J. Hoberman writes that he is "the most avant-garde of pop filmmakers (or vice versa)" and that his movies work "by subtraction."

Much of Sofia Coppola's "Lost in Translation," especially its soulful but unconsummated relationship and the woozy, gently psychedelic cab rides through dim streets, was Wong Lite. Coppola, who thanked him as she collected the 2004 Oscar for best original screenplay, is not his only celebrity fan: Quentin Tarantino's company distributed 1994's "Chungking Express" — Wong's stylishly fleeting, Godard-inspired love story, over which Tarantino says he wept with joy on first viewing. Nicole Kidman agreed to work with Wong after likening him to the Creator.

For all his well-placed admirers, Wong also operates in a way — combining spontaneity and perfectionism — that drives his colleagues crazy. He works right up to the wire, sometimes shooting days before his movies are due at festivals, films without permits, and experiences creative "breakups" with key cast and crew. He plans so vaguely that entire characters, subplots and endings drop out of his films by the time they're screened.

While ensconced in a sleek midtown hotel room, the lanky director talks about writing scripts in coffee shops — "I hate the idea of writing," he says, "so I try to make it less official, less formal." But he's also likely dodging his colleagues while making last-minute changes. (Given his films' painterly surfaces and brooding affect, the fact that Wong jokes around, wears baggy jeans, and speaks reasonably openly about his work seems almost shocking.)

"I feel that the films we have done together are jam sessions," says Christopher Doyle, Wong's longtime cinematographer, often credited with the films' distinctive underwater look and sense of pace. "We riff off a theme and we solo from time to time, but mostly we start together and try to end together, and where we lose ourselves in the meantime is what each film celebrates."

Wong's new film, six years in the making, involved getting slightly more lost than usual.

Discoveries in Hong Kong

Wong, 47, tends to set his films in an early-'60s, colonial-era Hong Kong he can barely remember.

"So it's a preoccupation with the world of his parents and their generation," says Chicago Reader film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum, "which he probably feels so romantic toward because he feels so cut off from it."

Wong moved to Hong Kong from Shanghai in 1963, at age 5. His Mandarin-speaking parents were outsiders in the British-Cantonese city, and his sailor father, who told great stories of his travels, always assumed the family would return to China.

"We didn't have friends and relatives in Hong Kong at that time, and we lived in an area full of cinemas," Wong says. "So we watched a movie every day." His mother would take him to Errol Flynn and John Wayne features, as well as locally produced Shaw brothers musicals and films of Cantonese operas. "It was like a dream in the afternoon."

He also, soon after arriving in Hong Kong, where he still lives today with his wife and child, discovered music. "In China there was only one radio station," he recalls. "So one of the first things that struck me was that when I got to Hong Kong there was radio everywhere, with different sounds: Mandarin music, Cantonese music, Western music" — this all in a city also full of itinerant Filipino musicians playing Latin styles.

This collision of sounds led to a fascination with music and an eclectic, remarkably effective use of it in his films since "Chungking Express": Several of his movies use Anglo-American songs for their titles — though with characteristic Wong elusiveness, "In the Mood for Love" is not heard in the film to which it lends its name — and he makes powerful use of sources as disparate as Argentine tango, Nat King Cole and Bellini opera.

Mostly, he says, "Music gives a sense of rhythm to a film."

Old music also helps Wong recover lost time. "We're trying to create a history for Hong Kong," he says. "Because this city has changed so fast, it's eating its own history. It's impossible to shoot any exteriors for Hong Kong in the '60s anymore because the city has totally changed." Much of "Mood" and "2046" was shot in Bangkok and elsewhere.

Wong's fascination with 1960s Hong Kong led to the journalist character played by Tony Leung in both "Mood" and "2046" — a repressed married man in the first who becomes a jaded Lothario by the second.

"Everybody says, 'There's no literature in Hong Kong, no writers,' " Wong says. "But it's not true. They were a very colorful, interesting group of artists," serious writers who ended up penning popular martial arts stories, women's melodramas, and horse-racing stories to stay fed.

"Almost all of the great Chinese directors are dealing with history," says Rosenbaum, "which becomes all the more precious because it almost doesn't exist in Chinese culture — where history is built on quicksand. And film is an art that involves time and the passage of time."

Wong's interest in time and history, though, goes beyond his obsession with a specific time and place. "All of his films could be described as period pieces," the critic says. "Even those that are set in the present."

The same, in fact, could be said of his new film, some of which takes place in the future.

Even by Wong's standards, the process of making "2046" was complicated.

The movie, the director's eighth, continues the story of Leung's character, Chow, as the aspiring novelist breaks the hearts of a series of lovely women. Though the title refers to a speculative novel that Chow sets in 2046, and the movie was originally imagined as a "futuristic opera," the finished film is more an oblique love story than sci-fi film.

Conceived about the same time as "Mood," the movie was intended to be shot at the same time because of its busy cast. "It was very difficult to work on both projects at the same time," says Wong. "Like falling in love with two women."

But the Asian financial crisis repeatedly undercut funding for both films, the "Mood" shoot took seven months instead of the few weeks allotted, and the SARS crisis slowed things further. As the 2004 Cannes film festival approached, Wong was still shooting and cutting.

He delivered "2046" a few hours before its screening, with an escort of French police. (It went on to be nominated for the festival's Golden Palm.) Then, in the following months, Wong cut it significantly before its theatrical run. It's only now, six years after its opening shoot, getting a U.S. release.

"I have never met someone who had such a strong willpower and persistence to devote himself to making the films he wants," says filmmaker Kwan Pun Leung, who helped shoot "2046" and made a documentary about Wong. "I think either he loves movies so much, or he's nuts."

Wong thinks too much has been made of what's often described as his ragged, improvisatory shooting style. (Similarly, he doesn't see his unabashed romanticism and glamour to be as unusual as the English-language press does.) It's the way independent films are made all over the world, he says, and entirely typical of movies in Hong Kong.

There, he says, films often have release dates even before they're shot, and they have to be made quickly and for small budgets. He doesn't always have the patience to get permits when he shoots, and his actors have busy schedules, which lead to both rushing and delays. Because the script is always changing, cast and crew get only small sections at a time.

"I always start working on his film without much idea about the character I play or the story line," says Tony Leung, who has worked with Wong on six films. "Because I trust Kar-Wai, we never start out with a full script." Leung notes that "I know little of Wong Kar-Wai the person" but working on his films is like going home.

When one of the actors in 1997's "Happy Together" — a doomy, Manuel Puig-inspired gay love story shot in Buenos Aires — had to return to Hong Kong for military service, Wong's crew came to the base pretending to be family and taped a voice-over. As last-minute script changes led to actors' being cut from the film after flying halfway across the world, the cast was jokingly dubbed the "casualty list." The film, for all its angst, won Wong best director at Cannes.

"More or less, most of the independent filmmakers in the world work like this," Wong contends. "If you look at the story of Cassavetes, it's the same thing: It's always been like this.

"Unless you're working in Hollywood, in the industry. But if you want to be independent, you have to be flexible."

Luis Buñuel, he points out, shot two actresses as the same character in the legendary "That Obscure Object of Desire" only because one was not originally available: The gesture has since been taken as an inspired Freudian or surrealist leap.

"And why does Godard come up with jump cut?" Wong asks of the New Wave signature. "He made the films too long, so he had to take out some of the shots randomly. So you have to be flexible. And sometimes those restrictions become the source of your inspiration."

Doyle, who has had several legendary fallouts with Wong, isn't so sure the process is quite so typical: "Thank God there is no one else in this world who works this way."

A reunion of sorts

In some ways, "2046" marks the end of a chapter for Wong. The movie draws from characters and situations from "Mood" and 1991's "Days of Being Wild," though it frustrates a strictly literal connection. (Wong says his fragmented and dreamlike narrative style, which sometimes uses several point-of-view characters, comes from Latin American novelists like Puig and Gabriel García Márquez.)

Wong compares the film to a reunion party at which you see old friends, who will mostly disappear at the night's conclusion. While it's not necessary to know the earlier movies, Doyle describes "2046" as an attempt to "complete some of the sentences we have started in other films."

It's hard for a director so critically acclaimed, and whose films are so beautiful — thanks in part to production designer/editor William Chang, who could have worked for Sirk or Fassbinder — to fend off Hollywood forever. Wong says he's already turned down lucrative offers from major studios.

"If people give you $80 million to make a film, you'd better be careful," he says. "I always give this advice to young filmmakers: You will have some success and you will be given a lot of money. If you make a film for $80 million, you have to cater to a huge audience. Will you be able to do that?"

To make a film that large, he says, you enter a different system. "All through the years we've developed our own habits; we're like a creature of habit. So it's not 'Can we cope with them,' it's 'Can they cope with us?' "

Still, Wong is not opposed to working with stars. His next project is "The Lady From Shanghai," in which he'll direct Kidman and write the script with English-speaking collaborators. (Despite his elastic relationship to the written word, Wong's first movie job was as a scriptwriter.) All he'll say about the film is that it will not resemble the Orson Welles-Rita Hayworth movie of the same name that is famed for its shattered-mirror conclusion: Wong chose the title for its evocative power.

"Lady" may be one of three English-language films he'll develop independently (though not necessarily direct or produce) for release by Fox Searchlight. The films will be co-financed and co-distributed by the indie and by Wong's company, Block 2, and probably made in Asia.

Claudia Lewis, Fox Searchlight's executive vice president for production, says the company was drawn to Wong's individual take on style, mood and storytelling. The director's spontaneous way of working, Lewis says, "didn't scare us away. We respect and respond to people's creative processes." The company's deal with him, she says, is unusually loose.

As to his other ambitions, with Fox or elsewhere, Wong won't say, though he's spoken of a film in which Leung portrays Bruce Lee's kung fu teacher.

When Wong looks at the state of U.S. cinema, he sees more films but fewer choices. He enjoys a wide range of movies, including "Batman Begins" and the "Star Wars" sequels, but says American film has been narrowing for two decades. "That's why when I look at 'Jackie Brown' I really, really like that film — more than 'Kill Bill' or 'Pulp Fiction.' Because there's a certain tenderness about those characters which we haven't seen in American cinema for a long time. Today everybody has to be so smart and so clever." He misses the work of his favorite mid-century directors — Otto Preminger, John Huston, Alfred Hitchcock — whose characters were "forthright" instead of smarmy.

He doesn't despair entirely, though. The development of China, where serious cinemas are now being built outside the big cities, will be good for all filmmakers, especially Asians.

As for the making of poetic, philosophical movies like his: "I think it will happen — always," he says. "Because don't forget, the first reason people are attracted to this business is their passion for expressing themselves through images. Some of them will make it and some of them won't. But we know those people are always there."

that was some of the most bullshit snobby interpretations of wong karwai I've read.

Wong Kar-Wai to head Cannes film festival jury

Director Wong Kar-Wai will head the jury for this year's Cannes Film Festival, making him the first Chinese chairman of the panel in the event's history, organisers said on Wednesday.

The Shanghai-born director of "In the Mood for Love" and "2046" won the Cannes festival's Best Director prize for "Happy Together" in 1997.

Wong made clear he saw the job as a challenge.

"Each city has its own language," he said in a statement. "In Cannes, it is the language of dreams. Yet it is difficult to judge a dream, much less compare it to another one."

Wong, who will preside over the 59th Cannes Film Festival from May 17-28, follows in the footsteps of directors such as Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese and David Cronenberg.

The president of the 2005 jury, Yugoslav director Emir Kusturica, cast a shadow over the annual cinema extravaganza in the French Riviera resort city last year, saying the quality of movies at the festival had fallen short of expectations.

"There is an old Chinese saying: One can never expect the wind, but should always keep one's window open," said Wong.

"Along with my fellow jurors, I look forward to sharing the dreams created by some of the most gifted talents in contemporary cinema. And our goal will be to keep our windows open as wide as possible."

QuoteHong Kong director Wong Kar Wai (Chungking Express, Fallen Angels, In the Mood for Love, 2046, etc.,) wants to make a film on the human tragedy that transpired in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina last August. Filming will take place mostly in New York City due to the heavy damage still in New Orleans and will have a budget of $50 million. Wong Kar Wai is eyeing Adrien Brody for the lead role.

http://www.cinemastrikesback.com/?p=928

This is so WTF? There goes Shanghai  :yabbse-sad:

really? cause Rachel Weisz had just mentioned that she was doing his next movie? 

Hooray, the Hurricane Katrina project is scrapped!  :yabbse-thumbup: WKW is doing a film about a guy who falls in love with a gal who eats blueberry pies with Norah Jones (yups, the singer). It's official.

I never knew this but...

my friend met WKWs producer in China and he tried set up a meeting with him. His producer told him he was busy closing a deal...a real estate deal. Apparently real estate is his main source of income and is where he spends most of his time: Buying and selling houses.

...no wonder he doesn't have time to write scripts.

Quote from: kotte on February 19, 2006, 05:24:51 PM
my friend met WKWs producer in China and he tried set up a meeting with him. His producer told him he was busy closing a deal...a real estate deal. Apparently real estate is his main source of income and is where he spends most of his time: Buying and selling houses.

did you think all directors live off the movies they make? WKW would be W.I.P.

Quote from: Pubrick on February 19, 2006, 10:00:41 PM

Quote from: kotte on February 19, 2006, 05:24:51 PM
my friend met WKWs producer in China and he tried set up a meeting with him. His producer told him he was busy closing a deal...a real estate deal. Apparently real estate is his main source of income and is where he spends most of his time: Buying and selling houses.

did you think all directors live off the movies they make? WKW would be W.I.P.

Yeah, maybe, I don't know...I certainly don't see WKW working in a cubicle on weekdays, shooting film in weekends and yearly vacations...

Quote from: kotte on February 19, 2006, 05:24:51 PM
I never knew this but...

my friend met WKWs producer in China and he tried set up a meeting with him. His producer told him he was busy closing a deal...a real estate deal. Apparently real estate is his main source of income and is where he spends most of his time: Buying and selling houses.

:shock:

Quote from: kotte on February 20, 2006, 02:31:55 PM
I certainly don't see WKW working in a cubicle on weekdays, shooting film in weekends and yearly vacations...

you don't need a cubicle or a 9-5 weekday schedule to sell houses. he's not a real estate agent, he just sells and buys his own property. i think all smart investors do this, i'm pretty sure GZA does this.

Quote from: Pubrick on February 21, 2006, 01:14:12 AM

Quote from: kotte on February 20, 2006, 02:31:55 PM
I certainly don't see WKW working in a cubicle on weekdays, shooting film in weekends and yearly vacations...

you don't need a cubicle or a 9-5 weekday schedule to sell houses. he's not a real estate agent, he just sells and buys his own property. i think all smart investors do this, i'm pretty sure GZA does this.

I under stand that. It was an exaggeration because real estate doesn't fit in mith my image of WKW...as it does in yours.

I just 2046 today again, and it's absolutely brillant. Everything about it screams cinema and it might be his best and my fav.

Hong Kong auteur Wong Kar-wai finds success easier abroad

HONG KONG (AFP) - Chinese director Wong Kar-wai has proved a revelation in the Hong Kong cinema world known for its bloody gangster and martial arts flicks, yet his unique style has won him more fans overseas than at home.

The 48-year-old auteur, who this month becomes the first Chinese filmmaker to head the jury at the Cannes film festival, has won praise for his stunning visual style and sensual art films as well as a clutch of international awards.

He was the first Chinese to win the best director award at Cannes in 1997 for "Happy Together", the tale of a strained relationship between two Chinese gay lovers living in Buenos Aires.

But it was his later film "In The Mood For Love" released in 2000 which earned him wider international plaudits, nominated for a Golden Palm at Cannes and going on to earn some 2.7 million dollars at the US box office.

Despite the global recognition, Wong's films are hardly box-office hits back home, where the local media prefers to dwell on his reputation for being eccentric and laborious, working without a script or even sometimes a plot outline.

"His films don't do so well in the local box office. Most of them watch Wong Kar-wai's film and don't understand what he's trying to say," said local critic Shum Longtin.

Wong, who is always seen in his trademark dark glasses, has in turn criticised local audiences for a lack of curiosity.

"It's not about whether a film is fast-paced or not ... They just say 'I don't get it'. They are not hungry," he once said.

Born in Shanghai, Wong moved to Hong Kong when he was five. Despite no formal training, he enrolled in a television drama training program after graduating from a local college in graphic design in 1980.

He later worked as a production assistant before becoming a TV scriptwriter.

Wong made his directorial debut in 1988 with "As Tears Go By" which was shown in Cannes. His 1990 follow-up "Days of Being Wild" regularly tops local critics' polls of the best films ever made despite being a financial failure.

International praise was heaped on the 1994 "Chungking Express", a quirky romantic comedy that Quentin Tarantino liked so much that he selected it as the first product of his Rolling Thunder distribution company.

"Personally, I think he is the best director in Hong Kong's history because of the technical skills and artistic achievements in his films," critic Shum said.

Wong is highly regarded for his ability to bring out the best in his actors, making international stars out of Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Maggie Cheung, while his partnership with cinematographer Christopher Doyle has been another key to his success.

"You can see Maggie Cheung's acting was totally transformed after 'As Tears Go By'. He knows how to turn mediocre actors into international stars," Shum said.

Former beauty queen Cheung won best actress at Cannes in 2004 for her role as a junkie rock star in ex-husband Olivier Assayas's "Clean".

Actors, however, temper their praise of Wong with frustration over his methods. After it took five years to complete the futuristic love epic "2046", which was shown at Cannes in 2004, star Leung described the process as torture.

Still, that has not put off Hollywood heavyweight Nicole Kidman and multiple Grammy-award winner Norah Jones who are to star in his upcoming and first English-speaking films: "The Lady from Shanghai" and "My Blueberry Nights".

Quote from: MacGuffin on May 11, 2006, 09:19:04 PM
Hong Kong auteur Wong Kar-wai finds success easier abroad

HONG KONG (AFP) - Chinese director Wong Kar-wai has proved a revelation in the Hong Kong cinema world known for its bloody gangster and martial arts flicks, yet his unique style has won him more fans overseas than at home.

The 48-year-old auteur, who this month becomes the first Chinese filmmaker to head the jury at the Cannes film festival, has won praise for his stunning visual style and sensual art films as well as a clutch of international awards.

He was the first Chinese to win the best director award at Cannes in 1997 for "Happy Together", the tale of a strained relationship between two Chinese gay lovers living in Buenos Aires.

But it was his later film "In The Mood For Love" released in 2000 which earned him wider international plaudits, nominated for a Golden Palm at Cannes and going on to earn some 2.7 million dollars at the US box office.

Despite the global recognition, Wong's films are hardly box-office hits back home, where the local media prefers to dwell on his reputation for being eccentric and laborious, working without a script or even sometimes a plot outline.

"His films don't do so well in the local box office. Most of them watch Wong Kar-wai's film and don't understand what he's trying to say," said local critic Shum Longtin.

Wong, who is always seen in his trademark dark glasses, has in turn criticised local audiences for a lack of curiosity.

"It's not about whether a film is fast-paced or not ... They just say 'I don't get it'. They are not hungry," he once said.

Born in Shanghai, Wong moved to Hong Kong when he was five. Despite no formal training, he enrolled in a television drama training program after graduating from a local college in graphic design in 1980.

He later worked as a production assistant before becoming a TV scriptwriter.

Wong made his directorial debut in 1988 with "As Tears Go By" which was shown in Cannes. His 1990 follow-up "Days of Being Wild" regularly tops local critics' polls of the best films ever made despite being a financial failure.

International praise was heaped on the 1994 "Chungking Express", a quirky romantic comedy that Quentin Tarantino liked so much that he selected it as the first product of his Rolling Thunder distribution company.

"Personally, I think he is the best director in Hong Kong's history because of the technical skills and artistic achievements in his films," critic Shum said.

Wong is highly regarded for his ability to bring out the best in his actors, making international stars out of Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Maggie Cheung, while his partnership with cinematographer Christopher Doyle has been another key to his success.

"You can see Maggie Cheung's acting was totally transformed after 'As Tears Go By'. He knows how to turn mediocre actors into international stars," Shum said.

Former beauty queen Cheung won best actress at Cannes in 2004 for her role as a junkie rock star in ex-husband Olivier Assayas's "Clean".

Actors, however, temper their praise of Wong with frustration over his methods. After it took five years to complete the futuristic love epic "2046", which was shown at Cannes in 2004, star Leung described the process as torture.

Still, that has not put off Hollywood heavyweight Nicole Kidman and multiple Grammy-award winner Norah Jones who are to star in his upcoming and first English-speaking films: "The Lady from Shanghai" and "My Blueberry Nights".

That's sad :yabbse-undecided:  Several of his films are allegorical tales about Hong Kong and its history. You would think...

it's coming from one snobby critic though.  people like his films just fine in hong kong, but it's that same small crowd of kids who watch indie and artsy films.  it's not like wong karwai is a box office hit elsewhere in the world.  but do tell, which films of his are "allegorical of hong kong's history"?

Quote from: pete on May 12, 2006, 10:13:01 AM
but do tell, which films of his are "allegorical of hong kong's history"?

His last trilogy (Days of Being Wild, In the Mood for Love, 2046) chronicles the drastic changes Hong Kong underwent in the '60s as a British neocolony (ITMFL ends in 1966, the year of the Cultural Revolution in China) to the 50 years after the Hong Kong handover (hence, the fixation on the number 2046). All three films involve characters pining for a time and a lifestyle that no longer exists, amidst such a booming, modernized socio-economic environment. There are a lot of sociological references to be found in the characters' lifestyles, where they came from, etc. I still haven't gotten many of 'em down... I have to see these films again, and read more stuff about Hong Kong in the '60s. I remember being totally clueless when I saw that clip of de Gaulle towards the end of ITMFL.

And Happy Together delves into a lot of stuff about nationalism and identity and the ambivalent lines in between all of these issues. I personally did not get a lot of the thematic motifs in the film. But there are a lot of smart reviewers/film scholars who have.

Here's an excerpt from a wonderful review (http://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/jc44.2001/payne%20for%20site/wongkarwei5.html) that pinpoints a handful of its political references to nationalism:

QuoteThe issue of nationalism is introduced in the very first shot: a close-up shows anonymous fingers (presumably those of an Argentine immigration officer) flipping through Yiu-Fai's and Po-Wing's passports. The photographs of their distinctly Asian faces are glimpsed inside. The fingers then point to the lines that read "British national (overseas)" before stamping them with an immigration seal bearing a prominent date (12 May 1995). Afterwards comes the film's main title, "Happy Together," followed by a shot of Po-Wing next to a night table. On the table (among some garbage) are a lamp of Iguazu Falls and some pictures of Po-Wing and Yiu-Fai together. From the outset, Wong stresses the issue and problem of nationality. The passport is a supreme signifier of both nationalism and personal identity. Wong literally underlines these issues by having the officer's finger point out the document's claim that these two Asian men are "British national." And the date on the stamp (like the expiry dates on Chungking Express' pineapple tins) indirectly hints at the countdown to the hand-over. In the context of 1997, the year of Happy Together's release, the question is implicit: To what extent are Yiu-Fai and Po-Wing "British nationals"?

In the next scene, the problem of nationalism segues into the problem of relationships. The juxtaposition of the painted Iguazu Falls lamp and the photos of the two lovers link their relationship to the waterfalls—or at least to a mediated image of the actual geographic location. Lying in a shabby bed in a shabby room, Po-Wing tells Yiu-Fai that they could "start over." Until now, all the images have been in color. But the film cuts to black & white when Yiu-Fai gets into bed with Po-Wing and the two men renew their relationship with vigorous lovemaking. We hear Yiu-Fai's voice-over say that he and Po-Wing have broken up many times but get back together every time Po-Wing wants to "start over." As the two men "start over," the film itself seems to "start over" by going back to the monochromatic origins of the moving image. The sex between the two men plays as an alternate act of conception—a renewal of the relationship, of the film, of cinema itself.

Regardless, WKW's films are enjoyable on many levels. I mean, I enjoy his film's romanticism, first and foremost. The other stuff are extra bonuses  :yabbse-smiley: But I just thought that the people in Hong Kong would've connected with it more, knowing more of their own history, etc.

that's all critic talk.  it's like when Herzog makes a film, all the French will talk about is his German neo-realist tendencies, until they learn about neo-romanticism, and then that's all they see in Herzog's films--and at the same time, the Americans look for nazi references in his films because he's from Germany.  I think Wong KarWai and Chris Doyle are a pair of very conscious cats whose characters inhabit a real world with real geo-political and socio-economical implications, but film school papers on what one character is saying and what it cuts to and what It All Means to world cinema as well as Chinese cinema, is to undermine the pair's visceral approach to filmmaking--grasping the energy and the space of people instead of scripting everything to voice some kind of great political ideal.
the pair in happy together deal with problems all immigrants abroad face, especially the ones without much money or sense of community: loneliness, isolation, and homesickness, on top of their troubled relationships with their family and each other.  their national identity is amongst the least of their worries.  97 is obviously a scary number to citizens of hong kong, and maybe one can argue that the anxiety seeps into wong's works.  however, to have one shot of one immigration officer touching one part of the passport and to say that that is wong karwai exploring the national identities of his characters, is pure academic bullshit. 

this kind of soulless scrutiny/ intellectual masturbation has always bothered me, because it always inevitably turns filmmaking into this intellectual exercise, or circular logic algebra: the passport must signify x therefore whenever the passport appeas wong karwai must be saying x.  it takes away the organic nature of filmmaking, that is particularly celebrated in wong karwai and doyle's collaborations.  allegories are easy, metaphors are hard, but still easier than poetry.  capturing the spirit and the energy of the times is very different from being political.

Quote from: pete on May 14, 2006, 12:00:34 AM
that's all critic talk.  it's like when Herzog makes a film, all the French will talk about is his German neo-realist tendencies, until they learn about neo-romanticism, and then that's all they see in Herzog's films--and at the same time, the Americans look for nazi references in his films because he's from Germany.  I think Wong KarWai and Chris Doyle are a pair of very conscious cats whose characters inhabit a real world with real geo-political and socio-economical implications, but film school papers on what one character is saying and what it cuts to and what It All Means to world cinema as well as Chinese cinema, is to undermine the pair's visceral approach to filmmaking--grasping the energy and the space of people instead of scripting everything to voice some kind of great political ideal.
the pair in happy together deal with problems all immigrants abroad face, especially the ones without much money or sense of community: loneliness, isolation, and homesickness, on top of their troubled relationships with their family and each other.  their national identity is amongst the least of their worries.  97 is obviously a scary number to citizens of hong kong, and maybe one can argue that the anxiety seeps into wong's works.  however, to have one shot of one immigration officer touching one part of the passport and to say that that is wong karwai exploring the national identities of his characters, is pure academic bullshit.

There's also that central conflict when Tony Leung takes away Leslie Cheung's passport. And there's some kinda geo-political motif to that river that the two had - from the beginning - wanted to visit together.

And btw, I think isolation and loneliness can be considered part of a displaced national identity (if that is, indeed, what WKW was trying to conjure up). You can look at a film from several different levels. I don't think there's a wrong or right answer... especially when WKW draws so many figurative metaphors in his work - it's the audience who, in the end, gets to decide on his/her own interpretation since being literal is not exactly WKW's forte.

But like I said, I don't think I really "got" Happy Together, so... 

Quotethis kind of soulless scrutiny/ intellectual masturbation has always bothered me, because it always inevitably turns filmmaking into this intellectual exercise, or circular logic algebra: the passport must signify x therefore whenever the passport appeas wong karwai must be saying x.  it takes away the organic nature of filmmaking, that is particularly celebrated in wong karwai and doyle's collaborations.  allegories are easy, metaphors are hard, but still easier than poetry.  capturing the spirit and the energy of the times is very different from being political.

One could argue that capturing the "spirit and energy of the times" is political. And I think it's subjective to say that allegories and metaphors should be considered separate from poetry. I personally think WKW's poetry contains a bunch of stuff. And the two happens to be allegories and metaphors.

Like I've said, I'm personally shaky on Happy Together. But upon repetitive viewings of In the Mood for Love, I notice - and love it - how WKW deftly packages all that pop culture, psychology, and nostalgia into an intimate but historical time capsule.

I'd like to argue that that's exactly why I love WKW moreso than, say, all those heavy "preaching to the choir" George Clooney films released this past fall or to a more hyperbolic extent, Michael Moore docs. WKW knows that politics seeps into our lives in the most unexpected ways. Hence, he doesn't preach or do any of that punditry stuff. He only infuses his emotions onto the screen through impeccable style. He documents the mentality of average people who feel displaced in their own personal lives. It's not capturing politics on its boring top hierarchal levels. It's about the affected masses who are not exactly certain of the changes that are happening, but nevertheless, know that it is imminent deep down.

On a lesser note, WKW himself has personally talked about the politics of all these films (I'd like to note that the whole auteurist fixation of the filmmaker's life can certainly go overboard in academia... but I think it's interesting in this context). He has since told reporters how In the Mood for Love was his most autobiographical film. He was just a little boy when he moved from Shanghai to Hong Kong, amidst all that political and economical upheaval. The way and manners of how the Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung character dressed and conducted themselves were reportedly mirrored reflections of WKW's own parents.

And to each to their own, but I don't think any of this intellectual kinda stuff is flat-out soulless. It certainly can be. But if you relate it back to life, it takes on greater meaning. Mental masturbation? Well, yeah, kinda. But it also gives some props to the filmmaker himself (and don't get me wrong, for some cases, some filmmakers get more credit than they have any right to deserve... the French New Wave guys while back at their Cahiers du Cinema days reportedly did this to some filmmakers). Stephen Teo, who yes, is one of those bullshit scholars, manages to do just that for WKW's films.

referring to events of the time is pretty different from being political, and capturing an era is also different from becoming an allegory.  I hope you don't ask me how they are different.  wong karwai does not participate in discussions about party platforms or sloganeering.  he does not even speculate on the idea of democracy and representation under a red china.  he doesn't discuss how hong kong deals with its economic crisis and boom in the 60s.  he makes movies that take place in a hong kong that he knows, and please stop embarassing the films with buzzwords such as "displaced national identity" or whatever other educated speculation, with WKW quotes dubiously misinterpreted for your weak arguments (how does "autobiographitcal" translate into being politically active?).  this is not censoring, this is respectfully telling you to view a film out of the reach of the ivory tower, which is quickly ruining people's understanding and appreciation of filmmaking by tainting everything with circular logic contexts and subtexts.  seriously, step out of of the brainwash tank and just soak in raw images and emotions, without your precocious half-assed research of the history and the anxiety of hong kong through petty interviews and reviews.  WKW and Chris Doyle are intelligent, but they're not intellectuals and have no use for intellectuals translating their films for other intellectuals.  if you wanna watch movies that suck the cocks of the intellectuals, go decipher a gus van sant film.

Quote from: pete on May 20, 2006, 12:40:34 AM
referring to events of the time is pretty different from being political, and capturing an era is also different from becoming an allegory.  I hope you don't ask me how they are different.  wong karwai does not participate in discussions about party platforms or sloganeering.  he does not even speculate on the idea of democracy and representation under a red china.  he doesn't discuss how hong kong deals with its economic crisis and boom in the 60s.  he makes movies that take place in a hong kong that he knows, and please stop embarassing the films with buzzwords such as "displaced national identity" or whatever other educated speculation, with WKW quotes dubiously misinterpreted for your weak arguments (how does "autobiographitcal" translate into being politically active?).  this is not censoring, this is respectfully telling you to view a film out of the reach of the ivory tower, which is quickly ruining people's understanding and appreciation of filmmaking by tainting everything with circular logic contexts and subtexts.

Since when does politics have to be "party politics"? Of course, you are free to believe that that is the case. But if you must know, there are others who believe it to be differently.

I personally believe that politics isn't as cold as politicos and the media paint it out to be. It affects our lives, our familites, our sense of identity. The impersonal (global and state politcs) affect the personal, as exemplified by the ordinary characters in WKW's films. There's a human face behind all those policies enforced.

Quoteseriously, step out of of the brainwash tank and just soak in raw images and emotions, without your precocious half-assed research of the history and the anxiety of hong kong through petty interviews and reviews.  WKW and Chris Doyle are intelligent, but they're not intellectuals and have no use for intellectuals translating their films for other intellectuals.  if you wanna watch movies that suck the cocks of the intellectuals, go decipher a gus van sant film.

How do you know WKW's intentions? What's more your're contradicting yourself... not that it matters so much, but WKW himself has spoken about some of the historical subtext and setting in interviews. That's his own words.

Of course, you can choose to interpret his sentiments as bull - that's the cool thing about films... the filmmaker has no control over how his films are viewed/interpreted/etc. (Hell if I know, if my own interpretations are right... it's all in the eye of the beholder, really. That's the wonderful thing about criticism - there is no right nor wrong answer.) But to speak for his own artistic/filmmaking intentions - telling me that you instinctively know these intentions - is kinda presumptuous - possibly more presumptuous than you claim I am being.


I'm also perplexed by your implication of "intellectualism". Since when does any of these subjects have no place in, say, a film messageboard? I was getting tired of the IMDb boards in which everything was getting all fanboyish and plagued by opinions and no established arguments whatsoever. I really thought deep down - despite all those claims by critics of the masses being dumb and whatnot - that the masses' intelligence were being underestimated.

I've always thought that it sucked that lengthier discussions on film was always relegated to yes, the ivory tower, where academia resided. When you have something as ubiquituous as film, it's a pity that it couldn't be examined more on a populist level. Because film is us, and we are film. It's a mirror that reflects our ideals, our fears, and our perceptions of what is real and unreal. Why should this kinda stuff be discussed only amongst an elite group of people when it's a collective, inclusive medium by nature?

The wonderful thing about WKW's work, I think, is that it crosses barriers. It's not high, middle, or low brow - none of those superficially constructed - not to mention - discriminating categories. It contains a lot of pop culture references and flourishes of melodrama, but it also compels the audience to think about our surroundings - why do so-and-so exist, and why it might make us feel a certain way.

You know, I would have loved to talk about, say, the airplane toy motif in Chungking Express, or the monologue the Maggie Cheung character in Days of Being Wild had about how fickle time is... but I won't. Because I'm scared as hell of any other fucked up names. You've basically reduced me to the role of a cock-sucker of the elite snobs. Discussing any possible themes about time and distance in WKW's work will only fuel your fodder. The next thing you know, you'll accuse me of doing butt sex to these intellectuals (since homosexual/phobic refs seem to be your forte).

A scared newbie,
TBN

wow, can't believed someone's actually agreed to shut up.  keep up the good work!  and I'm doing this for your own good.  the sooner you stop humorlessly overstating everything, the better human you'll be.

pete:
your intense desire to suffocate these 'intellectual masturbations' is almost criminal and must be fuelled by some terrible childhood trauma

your crticism of 'academic bullshit' stems from the frustration of a theorist looking too deep (as you insist there is nothing there). extracting symptomatic meaning from film expands perspectives we can see the work from, regardless of their validity in the artist's eyes.  you seem to have decided for us that all theorists assume their opinion was the true intent of the artist.  it does nothing to actively ruin filmmaking from its natural organic state you seem to have delcared

it is censoring.  you are anti-information.

smarten up

I liked you better when you rhymed.

but really, to defend your accusations a little bit, reading a film in a cliched film school manner, that is pretty derivative of book reports and maybe a tiny bit of art criticism, is very far from "information".  instead it focuses on the more petty trivial aspects of a film such as allegory and metaphor and all sorts of literary devices.  this is especially the case with foreign films, as I've mentioned before about the frenchmen and the americans reading his films as "neo-realist/ neo-romanticist" and "nazi", respectively, I've often found these self-proclaimed intellectuals with a very small and narrow worldview appropriating foreign films in very very shallow and limited cultural contexts, then trying to mask it through overwriting.

it's really sad that the both of you are on such high horses that you'll mistake conditioned babbling for insight, and then victimize yourself like you're some kinda red state defender of christmas when others can't take your bullshit.

Nicole Drops Wong Kar-Wai Plan? 
Source: CRIENGLISH.com 

Speaking at the Rome Film Festival, Hollywood star Nicole Kidman said she will give up the role in Hong Kong director Wong Kar-Wai's project 'Lady from Shanghai'.

The Oscar-winning actress said she wanted to accompany her newlywed singer husband Keith Urban, who entered a rehabilitation treatment center Thursday for alcohol abuse.

Wong wings to lesbian drama pic
Busy helmer working on 'Shanghai,' 'Nights'
Source: Variety

HONG KONG -- Wong Kar Wai, who has already committed to three pics, has added another to his busy schedule.

He will squeeze in a yet-to-be-named drama of lesbian love at a high school in between helming "Ashes of Time -- Redux" (set to be delivered in time for the fall festivals), and English-language pics "The Lady From Shanghai" and "My Blueberry Nights." Latter stars singer Norah Jones in her movie debut and is being readied for a May delivery.

New pic is expected to begin shooting in Taiwan in April, according to Jettone, Wong's company.

Wong's role in the project hasn't been confirmed but Hong Kong helmer Stanley Kwan ("Everlasting Regret") will be executive producer while Yanni Wang will be behind the camera.

Wong Kar Wai: Advertising director
New Dior spot features Eva Green
Source Variety

HONG KONG -- Wong Kar Wai as advertising director.

An interesting concept, since he's best known for a meandering creative vision that includes a free-form shooting style and the lack of scripted scenarios.

But Wong can do corporate, evident by his growing portfolio of advertisements.

His most recent project was with Christian Dior's John Galliano for a new Dior spot starring Eva Green.

Wong's side career filming commercials launched in 1997 when he was approached by Japanese advertising agency Dentsu to shoot a short film.

"Little did I know that short film ended up being used as a commercial," Wong says via email.

Since then, Wong has filmed spots for such diverse companies as BMW, Lacoste, Motorola and now Lancome's new Hypnose Homme fragrance, which stars Clive Owen, who also starred in the BMW spot.

"I had a good time working with Clive on the BMW ad, so when this new opportunity (with Lancome) came up, I gladly accepted the offer," Wong says.

The BMW clip was the third in a series of eight that were filmed for an Internet campaign by a high-profile group of helmers: John Frankenheimer, Ang Lee, Guy Ritchie, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, John Woo and Joe Carnahan.

The series, which was a hit with 100 million views on the Internet, was produced by Anonymous Content and RSA. Despite his feature storytelling style, the shorter form of ads wasn't too far of a stretch for the helmer.

"Obviously, I'm not very conscious about my style," Wong says. "I just react to the material and let my instincts guide my artistic judgment."

Wong's company, Jet Tone, also has an advertising division which specializes in producing commercials as well as repping top commercial directors in Asia.

SPC picks up 'Ashes of Time Redux'
Wong reworks martial arts pic
Source: Variety

CANNES — Sony Pictures Classics has picked up North American distribution rights to "My Blueberry Nights" helmer Wong Kar Wai's upcoming "Ashes of Time Redux."

Pic, which is repped by Fortissimo Films, is a reworking of the Hong Kong-based director's only martial arts pic.

"Redux" is now in advanced post-production and will be completed late this year.

Pic stars many of the biggest names in Chinese cinema including Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Brigitte Lin, Tony Leung Kar-fai, Charlie Yeung, Jacky Cheung, Maggie Cheung and the late Leslie Cheung.

SPC previously released Wong's "2046."

(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fgraphics8.nytimes.com%2Fimages%2F2008%2F10%2F05%2Farts%2F05chen_600.jpg&hash=81a8756a344a71f5957e1a4d5ececc4b65935569)

Wong Kar-wai's Phoenix Project, Rising at Last
By SCARLET CHENG; New York Times

TEN years ago the Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai went to retrieve original negatives of one of his early films from a lab going bust. He was startled to find reels of that martial-arts film, "Ashes of Time," made only four years earlier, already disintegrating. It was a rueful coincidence for an auteur whose work ("In the Mood for Love," "Chungking Express") often mines the terrain of the ephemeral present, the disappearing past and the longing for what might have been.

Mr. Wong began hunting down prints of the film, some tucked away in vaults of far-flung Chinatown theaters abroad. "It was like looking for overseas orphans," he said. Then he spent five years restoring, reassembling, color-correcting and rescoring the film, and now "Ashes of Time Redux," part of this year's New York Film Festival, opens at theaters on Friday.

With this version of "Ashes," the director said, he hopes for a better reception than when the film was first released in 1994. Even in a territory known for seat-of-the-pants filmmaking, Mr. Wong's compulsive rewriting and reshooting on this wuxia, or martial arts, movie were thought excessive, especially since taking two years to make any movie was unheard of in Hong Kong. And the result, with its fractured narrative, blurry slow-motion action sequences and a nearly mystical voice-over, puzzled audiences.

"It's like a bottle of wine," said Mr. Wong, taking off his signature sunglasses over lunch recently in Los Angeles. "It needed time. Perhaps it's finally come of age." Especially since, he said, international audiences — now accustomed to more contemporary swordplay epics like "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "Hero" — have had their tastes elevated.

When Mr. Wong set out to make "Ashes" in the early 1990s, it was a boom time in the Hong Kong film industry, which was churning out more than 200 features a year. And he was tapping into a resurgence in wuxia pictures with this adaptation of Louis Cha's celebrated multipart novel, "The Eagle-Shooting Heroes," published in 1957-59. The novel featured two older antagonists, Ouyang Feng and Huang Yaoshi; Mr. Wong concocted a prequel that reimagined them as younger men and told how failed romance and emotional reticence sealed their fates. "I wanted to make them more human," he said.

The shoot, however, was exhausting and costly. The film had some of the biggest Hong Kong movie stars — Leslie Cheung ("Temptress Moon"), Brigitte Lin ("The East Is Red"), Tony Leung Ka-fai ("The Lover") — but they were so in demand that the schedule was constantly being juggled to accommodate their comings and goings. There was even a scare when Mr. Cheung, playing a key role, was bitten on the neck by a scorpion. (He survived.)

"It was the first production of my company," Jet Tone, said Mr. Wong, whose international success had yet to come. "We were still figuring out how to do things."

Those chaotic beginnings were witnessed during a visit to the set in 1992. The movie was being filmed around the clock in Yulin, a remote town on the edge of the Gobi Desert. One day the shooting in a grotto stretched into evening, and a scene with Ms. Lin, delivering lines of an intense dialogue while staring into a spinning bird cage, headed into 40-plus takes. More than a dozen crew members were crammed into the small space, made stuffier when smoke was fanned in for atmosphere. Mr. Wong was in a corner watching on a monitor. Every so often, in his measured way, he made a suggestion to Ms. Lin or called out to his cinematographer, Christopher Doyle, "Is that all you can do?"

Mr. Doyle, now a longtime collaborator of Mr. Wong's, said in a recent telephone interview that he heard that question as a constant challenge. "It should be the mantra for all people in the arts."

During breaks, the actors retired to another chamber. Ms. Lin, lying in a hammock, went over her lines. Mr. Cheung was more relaxed. "I'd only do this for Wong Kar-wai," said the actor, who had starred in Mr. Wong's previous film, "Days of Being Wild." "Someday we'll look back and be proud we were in this film."

That time has arrived for Ms. Lin. "At the beginning, Wong Kar-wai did give me a script," she recalled, speaking by phone from Hong Kong, "but he told me, 'It's useless because what we shoot will be completely different.' " She acknowledged that she didn't understand the film when she first saw it. "Now, 14 years later, I do."

"Each image is like a painting," she added. "The camera is his brush, and it's only when he picks up the camera that he knows what the film's about."

Her thoughts are echoed by Mr. Doyle. "All our films come from the organic way in which we make them," he said. "My own approach is that you have to be responsive, especially with Wong Kar-wai, where you don't officially have a script. Day by day you are looking for the film. You're looking for the style."

Both Mr. Doyle and Mr. Wong were familiar with wuxia film traditions, but they sought their own shooting style to suit the story. Mr. Doyle cited the blurred-motion technique later used extensively in "Chungking Express" and much emulated. As the character played by Tony Leung Chiu-wai starts going blind, Mr. Doyle said, "We made the camera as subjective as his eyes are," seeing only partly and hazily.

The trauma of making "Ashes" led to Mr. Wong's breakout film — the serendipitous "Chungking Express," set in contemporary Hong Kong and shot mostly on location. Even with last-minute rewrites and improvisations, the film was shot and edited in three months, all in the downtime during post-production for "Ashes."

"Without 'Ashes of Time' there would be no 'Chungking Express,' " Mr. Wong said. "By the time we returned from the desert, what couldn't we do? We had enough confidence to launch immediately into 'Chungking Express,' a piece of cake in comparison." That film was released before "Ashes" and charmed local audiences as well as international ones.

"Chungking" saved Mr. Wong's fledgling company and his reputation. Now he is betting that an updated cut and more sophisticated audiences will save "Ashes" from its undeserved obscurity.

Been rewatching some of this dude's films these months, caught Days of Being Wild for the first time. Not my favourite but there's a colder version of his love story which turns up in his later films. I really wish he got to be do the second part of it as intended but there's that little tease at the end which is kinda cool.

Still think Chungking Express is my favourite.

Wong Kar-wai in line for Mei Ah movie
Source: The Standard

Mei Ah Entertainment will get Wong Kar-wai, the award-winning director of In the Mood for Love, to shoot a movie next year.

Mei Ah chief executive Patrick Tong Hing-chi hinted it will be a romantic movie and the main actor is someone "all women are crazy about."

But he refused to say whether it is another cooperation with Tony Leung Chiu-wai, who starred in seven of Wong's 11 movies and won a Cannes Film Festival award for best actor for In the Mood for Love.

Mei Ah, the major film and TV drama distributor in Hong Kong, has invested in many of the films directed by Wong, including The Grandmaster, released last year.

Tong said the company will shoot another film next year, directed by Gordon Chan Ka-Seung, who filmed the Fight Back to School comedy series starring Stephen Chow Sing-chi.

Wong Kar-wai to adapt I Belonged To You


WONG Kar-wai 王家衛 is set to adapt a short story from the collection I Belonged to You 從你的全世界路過 for his next film. Author ZHANG Jiajia 張嘉佳 confirmed the news yesterday on his Weibo microblog.

Originally published on the internet as "bedtime stories", the book is divided into 38 chapters. It is described as a "cluttered" collection of love stories written in the style of a "friend narrating his tales to you in the middle of the night."

Wong is adapting the chapter called 擺渡人 (literally Ferryman), about an affair between a girl and a married artist in Changchun. Rights for individual chapters of the book have reportedly been sold to other film companies, but Wong's adaptation is the first that has been officially announced by Zhang himself.

According to its publisher, stories from the book have been reposted 1.5 million times on Chinese microblogs. In book form it has reportedly sold over two million copies. Zhang previously co-wrote the script of Wuershan 烏爾善's The Butcher, the Chef and the Swordsman 刀見笑 (2010).

Zhang wrote that the film is set to begin shooting soon with a very strong cast. Earlier this month, Mei Ah Entertainment Group Ltd 美亞娛樂資訊集團有限公司's Patrick TONG 唐慶枝 told local media that Wong was preparing to shoot a romance in 2015.

QuoteOriginally published on the internet as "bedtime stories", the book is divided into 38 chapters. It is described as a "cluttered" collection of love stories written in the style of a "friend narrating his tales to you in the middle of the night."
Wong is adapting the chapter called 擺渡人 (literally Ferryman), about an affair between a girl and a married artist in Changchun.

Very Wong Kar-Wai. The Grandmaster wasn't bad but it certainly felt truncated. This sounds like classic WKW but perhaps we're long past the best work in his career (look, it's unlikely he's gonna make anything as good as Chungking Express again).

Was suddenly reminded of this scene earlier today. I remember the first time I watched it, it was very early in the morning and I was exhausted and this part seemed like the most oddly futuristic thing ever.

Still seems that way. Particularly 1:18.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ae7XTwX0ckg

This I can get behind.

Quote
Along with the promise of that feature, Hong Kong cinema has something else to celebrate today: word of a new Wong Kar-wai picture. After The Ferryman became merely a producing and, according to IMDb, writing endeavor, it's encouraging when Shanghai Film Group Corp. announce that the writer-director has begun some stage of work on Blossoms, which is an adaptation of Jin Yucheng's Shanghai-centered short-story collection. Here's how CRI English sum it up:

Depicting chores and trifles of urban life, such as grocery shopping and hosting a dinner party, Blossoms provides a vivid image of the daily life of ordinary Shanghai people. Focusing on a hundred characters, and several main ones, the whole story is carried out over two time-lines: from the 1960s to the mid-1970s, the end of the Cultural Revolution; and from the 1980s to the start of the 21st century. As the two time periods alternate, the book unveils the two faces of the city: the Shanghai of old and the modernized metropolis it is today

http://thefilmstage.com/trailer/trailer-for-johnnie-tos-design-for-living-arrives-alongside-word-of-wong-kar-wais-next-film/

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which one is he

he's the guy in sunglasses posing on the beach

The smart jock who became a real estate mogul. Despite his wealth and success, he still visits small and lonely Hong Kong jazz clubs every week.

while reading this (https://variety.com/2018/film/news/wong-kar-wai-hires-virginia-leung-1202907013/) i noticed

QuoteIn September last year, Wong committed to direct his first TV series, "Tong Wars," for Amazon.

so i googled, read this (https://qz.com/quartzy/1144054/tong-wars-wong-kar-wai-is-casting-for-his-amazon-series-about-chinese-gangsters-in-19th-century-san-francisco/)

QuoteWong's Tong Wars, a crime drama series about Chinese gangsters set in the United States of the late 19th century.

"The thing that attracted me to this project was the first opportunity to tell the story of the first Chinese-American experience in the most authentic and proper way, because I think there aren't many films about this experience," Wong said at a film festival in France in October, noting the story would span decades, until the 1970s.

Few details about the show's story line have been revealed except for the fact that it will explore the clashes between Chinese immigrants and organized-crime families in San Francisco's Chinatown.

Quote10-part original series

QuoteBehold, here are the four main protagonists of Wong's Chinese-American gangster saga.

Vicky Sun: Vicky, a woman in her 70s who runs a global criminal network. She began her life in the US as a slave girl growing up in a brothel, and rose to become the richest woman in 1970s San Francisco. "Imperious, volatile, cunning, stylish, educated, with a cutting sense of humor, altogether fabulous," the casting call says of Vicky.

Tom Sun: Tom is the adoptive gangster father of Vicky. A revolutionary fugitive from southern China, Tom flees to the US and becomes a killer for hire during the street wars between Chinese gangs. He has two wives living with him in the brothel, and eventually falls in love with a wealthy, married white woman. It looks like Tong Wars might feature a spot of martial arts—at any rate, it's listed as a plus point for the actor trying out for this role.

Lo Mo: Mo appears to be one of Tom's wives, and runs the brothel. A shrewd and dominant figure, she directs and molds Tom with her knowledge of her society and its players. She has developed a fondness for opium to deaden her rage.

Johnny Young: An orphaned teenager, Young is raised on the streets by his fellow members of a Chinese gang that seems slated to go to war with Vicky's criminal empire. "Violence, after all, is how Vicky understands love. Johnny reminds her of Tom and herself."

Paul Attanasio, who received Oscar nominations for the screenplays for Quiz Show (1994) and Donnie Brasco (1997), is writer and executive producer for the series.

QuoteThe notice says candidates for the roles must be available from July 2018 to January 2019. There is no set time for the release of the show.

Wong Kar-wai Says Next Film 'Blossoms' Will Have Thematic Connections to 'In the Mood for Love' and '2046' (https://thefilmstage.com/news/wong-kar-wai-says-next-film-blossoms-will-have-thematic-connections-to-in-the-mood-for-love-and-2046/)
Written by Jordan Raup on March 19, 2019

In the six years since his last film, The Grandmaster, there have been a number of projects Wong Kar-wai's been attached to. There was The Ferryman, which he ended up just producing, as well as his ambitious Amazon series Tong Wars, which is still in development, and a Gucci biopic for Annapurna that never came together, along with another drama series. Also among those in development was the drama Blossoms, which is now finally confirmed as his next film, according to the director himself.

While being awarded by the Hong Kong Film Writers Association this week, the director confirmed that the film could begin production as early as the end of this year, Ming Pao reports (via Coconuts). Based on Jin Yucheng's 2013 novel, the film follows three Shanghai residents from the early '60s, at the end of China's Cultural Revolution and through the '90s, with a selection of scenes being shot in San Francisco.

Speaking at the ceremony, Wong said after working on the screenplay for the last four years, he's nearly done. For the first time, he also said, "Blossoms would be the third part of In The Mood for Love and 2046." It's intriguing to hear this, considering the latter two films already form his informal Love trilogy with Days of Being Wild, but perhaps he'll expand on this as we get closer to production. He also added, "No actors have been cast yet, and they need to be able to speak Shanghainese," referencing the specific dialect also heard in his masterpiece In the Mood for Love.

"Shanghai is my hometown and the time that the book describes is the time of my absence from Hong Kong because I went to Hong Kong when I was 19, in '63," the director said a few years back. "I hadn't been back to Shanghai until the early nineties. This is my opportunity for me to fill in all the things that I have missed."

Here's a fuller synopsis of Blossoms:

Depicting chores and trifles of urban life, such as grocery shopping and hosting a dinner party, Blossoms provides a vivid image of the daily life of ordinary Shanghai people. Focusing on a hundred characters, and several main ones, the whole story is carried out over two time-lines: from the 1960s to the mid-1970s, the end of the Cultural Revolution; and from the 1980s to the start of the 21st century. As the two time periods alternate, the book unveils the two faces of the city: the Shanghai of old and the modernized metropolis it is today.

Release includes:
THE HAND
IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE
HAPPY TOGETHER
FALLEN ANGELS
CHUNGKING EXPRESS
DAYS OF BEING WILD
AS TEARS GO BY (Debut).

blu ray punto com (https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/World-of-Wong-Kar-Wai-Blu-ray/261077/)

Criterion site (https://www.criterion.com/boxsets/4117-world-of-wong-kar-wai)

Booklet sheet on the Restoration + Aspect Ratio changes attached to this post ~

QuoteSEVEN-BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION COLLECTOR’S SET FEATURES
New 4K digital restorations of Chungking Express, Fallen Angels, Happy Together, In the Mood for Love, and 2046, approved by director Wong Kar Wai, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtracks
New 4K digital restorations of As Tears Go By and Days of Being Wild, with uncompressed monaural soundtracks
New program in which Wong answers questions submitted by authors André Aciman and Jonathan Lethem; filmmakers Sofia Coppola, Rian Johnson, Lisa Joy, and Chloé Zhao; cinematographers Philippe Le Sourd and Bradford Young; and filmmakers and founders/creative directors of Rodarte Kate and Laura Mulleavy
Alternate version of Days of Being Wild, on home video for the first time
Extended version of The Hand, a 2004 short film by Wong, available in the U.S. for the first time
Hua yang de nian hua, a 2000 short film by Wong
Interview and “cinema lesson” with Wong from 2001
Several programs featuring interviews with Wong; actors Maggie Cheung Man Yuk, Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Chang Chen, Faye Wong, and Ziyi Zhang; and others
Program from 2012 on In the Mood for Love’s soundtrack
Deleted scenes, alternate endings, behind-the-scenes footage, a promo reel, music videos, and trailers
PLUS: Deluxe packaging, including a perfect-bound, French-fold book featuring lavish photography, an essay by critic John Powers, a director’s note, and six collectible art prints

New cover by Nessim Higson

oh wow that's tragic about the Happy Together negative. yeah WKW made alterations to these movies that are stirring all kinds of conversations. it's sort of distracting and I do want to go in with open eyes, open heart

Comparisons between the controversial new transfers and the old:

Quote from: Christopher Doyle"I think that we should not be so sensitive with our works. You have to let go, let them go. No need to masturbate over creations," said Doyle. "I was not firmly involved in the restorations, although I gave my opinion several times and I was observing how the process was carried out. I think the 'Fallen Angels' case is a perfect example of an attitude towards work: they tried switching to an anamorphic format and oh, how they marveled. You always have to see with new eyes, the social and conceptual changes have been many. One thing that happened in almost all of those movies, something that people often call our 'style,' is that it usually came out of a mistake. [Laughs]"

He added, "What happened was that we shot a certain scene with two actors who had only been hired for one day and something went wrong with the emulsion. I don't remember the reason, maybe one of the attendees accidentally opened the can. The truth is that the image had been left with low exposure and a lot of grain. What to do about that? We tried various things and eventually transferred the scenes to high-exposure black and white film. And that worked. But we couldn't have a single black-and-white scene, so we decided that every time something went wrong in the relationship between the leads, that situation would be seen in black and white. That became a part of the style, but it wasn't originally that way. It was a kind of compromise."

I think, you know, Doyle couldn't stop it anyway. so when he talks about letting go he's maybe gone through that for himself. and it's good advice. the only thing that fucks with me here is I already own all these movies on blu-ray. this happened with Pierrot le Fou too

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it's like, geez I do like the movie, that's why I bought it in this exact same format. I'd rewatch all the WKWs another way of course I would, I suspect I somehow will eventually

https://www.reddit.com/r/criterion/comments/jda35f/a_call_to_arms_vs_limmagine_ritrovata/

QuoteExcerpt from this blu-ray.com review  (https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Police-Story-Blu-ray/228760/#Review)on Police Story (and Police Story 2):

The 4K remaster that L'Immagine Ritrovata produced for Police Story is yet another one in a long list of questionable 'restorations' that basically replaces the film's native identity with a digital one. Sadly, this is actually a very frustrating trend with a wide range of older color films that are being 'restored' at L'Immagine Ritrovata, so I don't quite understand why changes are not made to end it. Anyhow, considering the alternative, it is very obvious that currently this is without a doubt the best overall presentation of the film on the marketplace, but it is not what its fans deserved.

A Touch of Zen Blu-ray.com review  (https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/A-Touch-of-Zen-Blu-ray/152786/#Review)that notes similar issues with L'Immagine Ritrovata restoration.

Dragon Inn Blu-ray.com (https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Dragon-Inn-Blu-ray/148240/#Review) review that notes similar issues with L'Immagine Ritrovata restoration.

Twitter thread I found showing the side-by-side  (https://twitter.com/zizz_0/status/1307404772966912005?s=20)for the upcoming In The Mood For Love release.

knowing about L'Immagine Ritrovata is definitely the kind of nerd stuff I need in my life

a certain problem that arises when talking about In the Mood for Love Chungking Express is they were flawless. King Hu too, and Jackie Chan another way I suppose. but anyway the changes are noticeable in like in a spiritual sense. WKW was all-in on this and the loss of certain Happy Together materials was a tragedy. but As Tears Go By and Days of Being Wild are better now, is my guess, and Doyle put support into the widening of the Fallen Angels perspective

I remember when The Red Shoes was restored my friend was pissed at the blacks. I think restoration is tricky

And for anybody that's experienced actual eastman fade on an old print, you know that a full-pink tint tends to come with time. Still, it seemz odd that it's a common trait of L'Immagine Ritrovata work to just go green, lol.

For those interested in step-printing technique through digital means