Essential 5: Wong Kar-Wai

Wong Kar-Wai is often cited as the world's most romantic director. His films are known for characters who go through life as if there is nothing else but romance and they are shot so lovingly as to make even the most stone-hearted viewer agree. If that was all there was to him, he would still be a director worth watching -- genuine romance is almost impossible to find at the movies. His films are also filled with subtext. For instance, Wong always shows clocks and highlights the movement of time in every shot. On one level this merely hightens the sense that all relationships are finite, and so is heartbreak. On a second level though, he is referencing the ticking clock that Hong Kong (where many of his films take place) was under during British rule. Many of those who live in Hong Kong had fled mainland China after the rise of communism there and lived in Hong Kong to escape what they saw as an oppressive system. Wong Kar-Wai shows metaphorically the fear many in Hong Kong must have felt about the hand-over of power that happened in 1997.


That sort of analysis makes his films sound stuffy and self-consciously artsy. The truth is that many of them are clearly art films, but they have a vibrancy which is completely at odds with the usual stereotype. His films are kinetic and entertaining. You don't have to put a ton of thought into watching them (although that certainly isn't a bad thing), you get his meaning mostly subconsciously. Watching any of these films is the perfect introduction to one of the best filmmakers working today:

1) Chungking Express
The movie that made him an international cinema icon more than lives up to the hype. From the first shot of the film following a broken-hearted policeman as he seems to skip through time after some fugitive you can't take your eyes from the screen. The inventiveness is unceasing, any five minutes in this film will have visual ideas than almost any other whole film. The amazing thing was how quickly it was written and shot. This movie was basically made to give Wong Kar-Wai a break from his epic martial arts film Ashes of Time. He ended up making a modern classic, one which I can't help but watch every few months.

2) Days of Being Wild
The first film in an extremely loose trilogy (the next two films on this list complete it). This was Wong's second film, and the first in which he really chases his ambitions. As Tears Go By is an excellent film, but it feels as if he is bending to studio expectations. Here though, we witness the story of a carefree youth whose heart's desire is to find his birth mother. He ends up hurting many of those who come in contact with him and the film explores some of the outcomes of their stories.

3) In the Mood for Love
His most acclaimed film is a marvelous period romance. It takes place in Hong Kong in the 1960's. Wong Kar-Wai said that the idea for the film came from wanting to explore how the fast working rice cooker changed the culture of the city. He ended up using that only slightly, but found a powerful story of forbidden love, of yearning, of the clash between tradition and love. It has one of the best film scores ever written and the costume design even moved me (I never really appreciate that).

4) 2046
A direct sequel to In the Mood for Love, this film is considerably more disjointed. A prominent sub-plot involves a Japanese man riding on a futuristic train who falls in love with his android companion. For all its strangeness this might be the film which covers the most thematic territory. It smoothly takes on a huge number of characters and concerns but never feels overburdened.

5) Fallen Angels
A sort of companion piece to Chungking Express and the film made immediately after it, this film is perhaps his most beautiful. His cinematographer captures Hong Kong at night in such a way as to make it feel like the only place in the world. This movie might also contain more clocks and time related imagery than any of his other films. I read this as his love letter to the city. His next film would take place on the opposite side of the world, in Argentina, and you get the sense that he wants to document the city one last time before the hand-over to China.