Film Watch
A Fei jing juen, 1991
[Days of Being Wild]
Wong Kar-Wai
- Spare compared to some of his later work like Chungking Express and In the Mood for Love in terms of colour, music and camera angles.
- Characters trying to transcend the mundane sorrow of their lives via their quest for acceptance.
- Utlimately unconvincing, almost catalectic. Perhaps blinded by love for the thematic strength of it's screenplay ?
- Nothing in Yuddy's character inspires chemistry (love, anger, hope, hatred, etc.) between him and the characters he interacts with (Yuddy & Su Lizhen, Yuddy & his adoptive mother, Yuddy & Tide).
- Attempt to create a melancholic atmosphere to depict characters' sense of incompletion with low lighting, rain and lack of colour contrast. But there is no intensity in the depicted melancholy, perhaps due to the colours used. Compare this to melancholy and longing beautifully realized in Kieslowski's La Double Vie de Veronique (sepia overlay) and Trois Couleurs: Bleu (blue imagery).
- Technique:
- Repeated scene of the slow moving, blue filtered landscape of the (Filipino ?) countryside.
- Interestingly, Tony Leung mysteriously appears in the last scene.
Hwa yang nian hua, 2000
[In the Mood for Love]
Wong Kar-Wai
- Use of slow motion scenes juxtaposed with waltz music (by Michael Galasso) in the background.
- Intensely compelling portrait of claustrophobia, both external (crowded apartments and nosy neighbours) and internal (dread of failure of their illusory hope of the inviolability and invincibilty of thier marital relationships), using vivid contrast of bright colours. On the other hand, complete isolation of Chow Mo-wan and Su Li-zhen during their direct encounters -- no other character is present when they meet, even in restaurants, signifies both their isolation from society and their shared attribute of loneliness.
- Reflection of the growing insignificance of the spouses in their prevaling lives using only the former's voices.
- Technique:
- Shot in episodic, fade-out, fade-in fragments which aids the (occasional) elliptical narration.
- 2-way dialogues in Chow Mo-wan's office shot in uncommon angles (sideways and overhead)
Film Watch
Chong qing sen lin, 1994
[Chungking Express]
Wong Kar-Wai
- Chase sequences depicted using stroboscopic motion.
- Wong Kar-Wai's fascination with time, a charateristic he shares with Hou Hsiao-Hsein, creates an interest in duration as an essential element of film. Juxtaposition of accelerated surrounding 'life' with slow motion sequences of characters reflects their (contemplative) emotional state. Wong frequently uses music or dispassionate voice-over narration by characters (instead or along with time) to the same effect.
