Wong Kar-Wai and His Life in Movies

Wong Kar-Wai is perhaps the most important post-modernist filmmaker; the most original for sure. It is much to say about any of his movies, about Ashes of Time, Chungking Express or Fallen Angels, In the Mood for Love or 2046, or The Hand, his segment in the movie created together with Sodebergh and Antonioni (Eros).

I cannot be but subjective: were I to decide among them, my choice would go to Chungking Express and The Hand.

I watched today the trailer for My Blueberry Nights: his most recent film, and the first English-language one. My Blueberry Nights stars Jude Law, Norah Jones, Rachel Weisz and Natalie Portman: Newsweek summarizes it as a road movie about a woman on the rebound.

Well, the movie universe of Wong Kar-Wai is dual: the movies he has created, the movies he has watched. Here is his choice (Newsweek):

• Apu Trilogy (Satyajit Ray): for its humanity
• A Bout de Souffle (Jean-Luc Godard): for its poetry
• Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcok): for its sensuality
• Spring in a Small Town (Fei Mu): for its poignancy
• Early Autumn (Yasujiro Ozu): for its humor and wisdom

One could easily notice in Wong Kar-Wai's movies the qualities he is praising at the other masters: poetry and sensuality, humor, wisdom and humanity. Of course, humor at Kar-Wai manifests differently than at Ozu; also humanity is shown differently. Perhaps Kar-Wai is closer to Godard (and not only on the poetic side).

I've just ordered on the Amazon Spring in a Small Town: it is vaunted there as a classic example of Eastern cinema.

It is a shame that I couldn't yet make it to see any movie of Satyajit Ray: finding them is difficult. However, I hope I will watch some of them in near future. I learned about Ray more than forty years ago. I was in high school and I read a book about India, written by an Austrian journalist. One of the chapters was refering to Indian cinematography: I knew by that time the name of Raj Kapoor, the director of Awaara. The book was mentioning Kapoor, then it was presented a totally different filmmaker, Satyajit Ray.

As for Early Autumn, it is the one from Ozu's movies that I haven't seen yet. I greatly enjoyed his Late Spring (but here again one cannot be but subjective: all his movies made after the war are great)

I will come back soon on all these movies.


(Wong Kar-Way and Chris Doyle)