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Wong Kar Waiby ScottEdited from his paper "The Lasting Influences of the French New Wave in the work of Wong Kar Wai"
Wong’s most celebrated work seems to overlap these ideas and can be somewhat categorized in its own way. Days of Being Wild (1990), In the Mood for Love (2000), and 2046 (2004) are all films that take place in Hong Kong during the 1960s. This is the decade in which Wong Kar-Wai first moved to Hong Kong from Shanghai, so it is most likely a personally memorable time for him. These films capture interpretations of life in Hong Kong during this time period with occasional political undertones that underline the feeling of displaced cultural identity throughout Hong Kong, which was a British colony at the time. Themes of time and memory, which are essential to the works of Resnais and Marker, are highly prevalent in Kar-Wai’s work as well, thus linking him closely to the Left Bank intellectuals of the New Wave movement. The other category of Wong Kar-Wai’s films, Chungking Express (1994), Fallen Angels (1995), and Happy Together (1997), all manage to examine life in modern day Hong Kong, while still exploring similar themes and ideas. With these films, Kar-Wai captured realistic individuals existing amongst the backdrop of modern society. Politically, these films take place in the years leading up to the handover of Hong Kong from British control back to China, which happened in 1997. For example, Happy Together takes place during 1997, and focuses on two Hong Kong characters spending time in Buenos Aires and trying to come to terms with their distorted sense of cultural identity. Lastly, these films, as in all of Wong Kar-Wai’s work, are aesthetically challenging pieces of cinema that contain themes of time, memory, and love. Wong Kar-Wai's work proves that a film’s setting can sometimes become just as important as the characters. As Wong himself so eloquently put it once while being interviewed, “sometimes the main character is not the actors and actresses, it’s the background” (qtd. in Brunette 119). Technological advances allowed directors such as Godard and Truffaut to shoot their films out on the streets of Paris. This enabled them to, much like the Italian Neo-Realists, place their characters in realistic situations that occurred in actual settings. Some notable works of the New Wave, such as The 400 Blows (Truffaut 1959), Breathless (Godard 1960), and Cleo de 5 a 7 (Varda 1961), captured their locations in such detail, that they came off as love letters to the city of lights, filled with an energy and passion that was absent in most films up to that point. In addition to this, possibly the most influential aspect of this kind of shooting is the fact that it allows for cheaper and faster filmmaking. Wong Kar-Wai’s similar use of locations can be found in most of his films. The streets of Hong Kong play key roles in Chungking Express and Fallen Angels, as characters deal with isolation and longing amongst the crowded urban locales in which they live. It has been said, “Hong Kong becomes a metaphor for the characters and their varied existence. It represents an urban pastiche in which individuals struggle to come to terms with a sense of detachment and loneliness despite the territory’s high-density population” (Wright 6-7). Chungking Express features a particularly lively opening sequence that immediately throws the viewer into the disorienting landscape of the Hong Kong underground. These two films in particular were made on an unusually fast schedule with a low budget, thus providing them with an energy and spirit comparable to the New Wave films. Even in the films that take place in Hong Kong during the 1960s, a sort of intimate relationship between the characters, story, and location can be seen. This is evident in the attention to detail put into the sets and costumes, which makes the films feel like a love letter to the time period just as much as to Hong Kong itself. One would have much difficulty finding a modern director that treats cinema as a means of expression to the degree that Wong Kar-Wai does. By mixing an extremely interesting visual style with his unique worldviews, Kar-Wai has succeeded thus far in crafting a complex, sophisticated filmography. Almost every film he's made deals extensively with themes of unrequited love, isolation, loneliness, time, and memory. He has also shown an interest in applying these themes not only to his films set in modern day Hong Kong, but to those that take place in the past as well. This displays a personal and artistic belief that the themes he deals with are both timeless and universal. Such a distinctive style stands out in contemporary filmmaking. Handheld camera work is a frequently employed technique, one that has its roots in documentary filmmaking. When lightweight cameras began to be manufactured and used during the New Wave movement, filmmakers were able to shoot scenes on the fly. This not only saved time, but also much like a documentary, created the feeling of being thrust into the action, as if experiencing the events right there with the characters. Kar-Wai makes excellent use of this technique in his present day era films Chungking Express, Fallen Angels, and Happy Together. The viewer can sense the feeling of chaos, isolation, and confusion that exists in the characters. Another method Wong applies to his work is the use of long, uninterrupted shots. He appears to be unafraid to let the camera linger on a character for emotional effect, or to link particular events together within a single take. At times, this can slow down the pacing of the film, but it is a deliberately used technique that can add to the realism, yet serve a formal and artistic purpose as well. Adding to the documentary influenced aesthetics is Wong’s use of available light, which includes filming a large amount of night scenes outdoors. Though various colors and oversaturated tones are frequently used to add to the mood and feel of particular scenes, or entire films, Kar-Wai still tries to make the most of what is available. As a result, he is able to capture the overwhelming neon glow of the Hong Kong streets, which is of great importance to a few of the stories he's telling. In Wong Kar-wai’s films, the boundaries of non-linear narrative continue to be stretched. Stories are often told in a fragmented style, casually jumping back and forth between characters and loosely constructed plot lines. Certain films may even shift focus to another story altogether without warning, as is the case in Chungking Express. His most recent feature film 2046 bounces back and forth between 1960s Hong Kong and events being written in a novel by the main character that takes place in the year 2046. A reliance on this type of storytelling might be considered alienating to the viewer, but it is a personal choice made by the director that adds to the expressivity of his cinema. His style of editing is occasionally quick, and often relies on jump cuts, but does so in a way that does not completely copy Jean-Luc Godard. Jump cuts in films such as Fallen Angels are meant to convey the confused internal state of mind that the characters are dealing with. It is also an editing approach that lends itself well to the fragmented and disorienting structure of his films. A particularly disorienting visual motif that is extensively used in Wong’s language is a technique referred to as “step-printed” slow motion. Robert Payne attempts to describe this complex method by explaining that the footage is “shot at a slower film speed [frame rate]…so the action is speeded up; then, the frames are step-printed at a slower speed onto the finished film, so the action is restored to its real-time duration. The undercrank/step-printing method gives these scenes a haunting sense of simultaneous animation and suspension” (4). When viewed, this process creates surrealistic images that feel like a hyperactive version of Left Bank intellectual Chris Marker’s experimentation with still photographs in La Jetee (1962). The “step-printing” technique proves that Wong is able to experiment in his own innovative way while still drawing influence from cinema of the past. By taking a closer look at some of the individual films in Wong Kar-wai’s oeuvre, one can gather a stronger sense of his thematic concerns and cinematic language. His second feature film, Days of Being Wild, marks the point in his career where he began to develop his personal style and head in the direction of being a true auteur. The film was a massive commercial failure upon its release, but won several awards and is embraced by writers and critics that understand its importance to the director’s body of work. From a technical standpoint, the film is paced rather slowly and features many long, static shots. When the camera does move, it is a type of movement that represents a slight break from the usually isolating compositions. An aesthetic technique such as this is able to highlight the effective link between style and substance in Wong’s work. Technical flourishes almost always relate to the themes that are being explored. Time and memory and their relation to the characters being depicted seems to dominate Days of Being Wild, overshadowing anything that might resemble a plot. Also showcased in the film is the idea that the reconciliation of true love is highly improbable. Relationships between characters come and go, always failing to forge a lasting connection. Clocks become a major visual motif in all of his films, as if they are omnipresent objects that show the massive power time has over the lives of the characters. This, along with the difficulty of finding love, become some of the bleaker themes that Wong deals with in his work, though a sense of hope and possibility is apparent in some of his later films. In 1994, he went on to make one of his most innovative and highly praised films, Chungking Express. The film deals with a pair of love stories and is literally divided into two parts, switching gears halfway through as one main character bumps into a woman whose romance with another man then becomes the main point of focus for the remainder of the film. This is one of Wong’s more famous examples of experimenting with narrative structure. Even while doing this, most of the key themes are still on display. Each of the male characters is preoccupied with thoughts of love that went sour in the past. Eventually, because of the possibility that arises from the new women that enter their lives, they are able to put the past behind them and move on. Love and time intermingle with each other once again in Chungking Express, thanks to the structural technique that is being used. Wong throws the viewer into the action from the beginning, and makes effective use of handheld camera work. It is used here for his own specific purposes to convey the important relationship between the characters and their environment.
Fallen Angels, which was made a year later as sort of a companion piece to Chungking Express, is concerned with the way that individuals exist within their environment as well, and also explores how people communicate, or fail to communicate, with each other in modern society. Characters do not actually spend much time communicating directly with each other during the film, and most of what the viewer learns about them is told through voice-over narration. The female character know as “Agent” longs for the love of her criminal partner, known as “Killer,” despite the fact that they only meet each other once. Another character, Ho Chi Moo, never talks with other characters because he became a mute after eating a can of pineapple that was past its expiration date, which is a playful reference to a moment in Chungking Express, while also being a humorous take on the effects of time that Wong is always obsessed with. Humor is probably more common in this film than any of his others, and offers a bit of refreshment from the typically sad themes that are always being dealt with. One could argue that using this style of humor is an efficient way of mocking conventions and stereotypes. Technically speaking, it is possibly Wong’s most stylish film, and in addition to a constantly handheld camera, Fallen Angels uses an extremely wide-angle lens that distorts the image and allows for greater depth of field. Cinematographer, and frequent collaborator, Christopher Doyle describes the importance of using a 6.8 mm wide-angle lens by saying, “for this film, for the relation with the characters, the characters among themselves, the existence or absence of love, it’s what was visually necessary” (qtd. in Brunette 62). In a way, it is as if the distorted effect caused by the choice of lens length serves as a metaphor for the spatial relationship between character and background, proving again that there is always a point to Wong’s style. With his next film, 1997’s Happy Together, Wong made a slight departure from his previous work, while still holding true to his usual aesthetics and concerns. The majority of the film takes place in Buenos Aires, Argentina and seems to deal with underlying political concerns, especially the ideas of cultural identity and alternative lifestyles. By focusing the story on two characters who are in an on again off again homosexual relationship, Wong further accentuates the feeling of displacement that the characters have with the conventions of the world around them. A departure in subject matter as complex as this allows Wong’s work to mature while still exhibiting the unusual stylistic techniques found throughout his films. His noticeable evolution as a filmmaker in Happy Together paved the way for his two most ambitious and sophisticated works to date.
Wong Kar-Wai’s maturation continued to be seen in his highly acclaimed film In the Mood for Love. The film signified a change to a delicate, controlled aesthetic style more in line with Alain Resnais than the loose, chaotic Godardian influence of Wong’s previous films. No longer present are the handheld cameras and wide compositions one had grown used to seeing. They are instead replaced with gradual camera movements, slow building sequences, and tightly framed shots. As usual, these choices service the story admirably. Despite the fact that it is a different choice than expected, it still shows that Wong masterfully manipulates the camera and other techniques to examine the depths of his characters and themes. The usual themes are still there, with longing and the impossibility of a romantic connection being the focal point of the entire film. Time becomes important to the setting, which returns to Hong Kong in the 1960s, but is more of a major motif in Wong’s next film, the loose sequel to In the Mood for Love entitled 2046. 2046 is his most daring and ambitious film, which seems to synthesize the major components of his work into one massive whole. The narrative is wildly non-linear, frequently jumping back and forth from 1960s Hong Kong to a futuristic view of Hong Kong that exists in the imagination of Chow, the lead character, who is writing a science fiction story. After the heartbreak Chow suffered in the previous film, the viewer now sees how his emotions are dealt with over time. Memory and the past are clearly meant to have a huge effect on the future. This seems to be a continuous idea in his work that comes full circle in 2046. Throughout his work so far, Wong Kar-Wai has proven that he is a true master filmmaker by developing various thematic ideas and employing techniques that put a personal stamp on his films. Some of these techniques may be influenced by past methods employed throughout cinema history, but he uses them to create his own cinematic language.
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