WONG KAR-WAI

Started by Rudie Obias, March 01, 2003, 11:37:52 PM

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SHAFTR

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.
"Talking shit about a pretty sunset
Blanketing opinions that i'll probably regret soon"

Rudie Obias

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!
\"a pair of eyes staring at you, projected on a large screen is what cinema is truly about.\" -volker schlöndorff

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?
"Talking shit about a pretty sunset
Blanketing opinions that i'll probably regret soon"

Ghostboy

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.

SHAFTR

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.
"Talking shit about a pretty sunset
Blanketing opinions that i'll probably regret soon"

SoNowThen

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?
Those who say that the totalitarian state of the Soviet Union was not "real" Marxism also cannot admit that one simple feature of Marxism makes totalitarianism necessary:  the rejection of civil society. Since civil society is the sphere of private activity, its abolition and replacement by political society means that nothing private remains. That is already the essence of totalitarianism; and the moralistic practice of the trendy Left, which regards everything as political and sometimes reveals its hostility to free speech, does nothing to contradict this implication.

When those who hated capital and consumption (and Jews) in the 20th century murdered some hundred million people, and the poster children for the struggle against international capitalism and America are now fanatical Islamic terrorists, this puts recent enthusiasts in an awkward position. Most of them are too dense and shameless to appreciate it, and far too many are taken in by the moralistic and paternalistic rhetoric of the Left.

SHAFTR

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.
"Talking shit about a pretty sunset
Blanketing opinions that i'll probably regret soon"

Rudie Obias

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....
\"a pair of eyes staring at you, projected on a large screen is what cinema is truly about.\" -volker schlöndorff

Ghostboy

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.

Rudie Obias

check out AS TEARS GO BY, his first film.  i can't stress enough how great and beautiful HAPPY TOGETHER is....
\"a pair of eyes staring at you, projected on a large screen is what cinema is truly about.\" -volker schlöndorff

_fps

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.

pete

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.
"Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot."
- Buster Keaton

Rudie Obias

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
\"a pair of eyes staring at you, projected on a large screen is what cinema is truly about.\" -volker schlöndorff

edison

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!

SoNowThen

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?
Those who say that the totalitarian state of the Soviet Union was not "real" Marxism also cannot admit that one simple feature of Marxism makes totalitarianism necessary:  the rejection of civil society. Since civil society is the sphere of private activity, its abolition and replacement by political society means that nothing private remains. That is already the essence of totalitarianism; and the moralistic practice of the trendy Left, which regards everything as political and sometimes reveals its hostility to free speech, does nothing to contradict this implication.

When those who hated capital and consumption (and Jews) in the 20th century murdered some hundred million people, and the poster children for the struggle against international capitalism and America are now fanatical Islamic terrorists, this puts recent enthusiasts in an awkward position. Most of them are too dense and shameless to appreciate it, and far too many are taken in by the moralistic and paternalistic rhetoric of the Left.