Exploring the movies made by Wong Kar-wai, and the impact they had not only on the Asian cinema but also on Hollywood, and winning awards to foreign movies.
On 13 May this year, the Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai announced that his new movie Blossoms Shanghai, supposedly a sequel to his masterpiece “In the Mood for Love”, was set to shoot in July this year. The movie is an adaptation of Jin Yucheng’s novel Blossoms about a young man who’s looking for status and romance in the boom years of the 1990’s China. This is an anticipated return of Kar-wai to his hometown, Shanghai. It’s his long-awaited comeback since his last movie, The Grandmaster, which was released in 2013.
Kar-wai contributed to the “Second Wave” of Hong Kong cinema with his distinctive cinematography: vivid colors and usage of the step-printing, a technique executed by copying frames, making the frame sequence stretch and resulting in a sense of slow motion. These elements were able to set the tone of his movies. This glittering image of the 90’s Hong Kong he presents wouldn’t have been possible without the help of the cinematographer and his friend, Christopher Doyle who has worked with him on his most critically acclaimed movies: In the Mood for Love, Chungking Express, Fallen Angels and Happy Together.
Kar-wai’s approaches to filmmaking have also become a guidebook for both professional and amateur directors, most recently for Barry Jenkins for his Oscar-winning film Moonlight. With his remarkable filmmaking, Kar-wai helped Hong Kong’s cinema gain great worldwide recognition when “In the Mood for Love” was nominated for the Palme D’or at Cannes Film Festival in 2001.
In Luis de Miranda’s book, Being and Neonness, he says that neon speaks of the essence of cities and the poetry of nights. And as we watch Kar-wai’s movies, we notice most of his movies are set at night when the streets of the 90’s Hong Kong were lit with neon signs. These neon signs can be considered a visual instrument of storytelling to convey the excitement the characters experience as they run into each other on the streets, developing companionship before each one of them goes their separate ways. The sequence of events creates a contrast of comfort and uncertainty, manifesting the theme of loneliness Kar-wai tends to repeat in his movies.
It’s a surprise then to learn that Kar-wai doesn’t work with a complete script on set because he doesn’t write one beforehand. He comes up with a story then improvises everything else on set. This makes working with him a whole different experience; as a result, Taiwanese veteran actress, Brigitte Lin, came out of retirement in 1994 to star in “Chungking Express” as the drug smuggler in a blonde wig. Her character became one of his most iconic characters, and her mysterious and confident presence contributed to the impact left on the viewers. Quentin Tarantino opens his own releasing company so that a bigger audience can see the movie.
The East Asian cinema has been able to make a clear statement, most recently at the Oscars 2020 with the South Korean film Parasite winning Best Picture, that it’s always been an equal to American and European cinemas.
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