Epicurean hedonism seems to be lurking under the surface of Wong's exceptional eye for composition and color palette, texture of image and sound, even the very choice of actors and actresses. Masterfully combined, these elements create a unique vision of cinematic beauty. Captured by a drifting camera and nostalgic music, the films surrender to a Herakleitean flux: narratives afraid of a strict locus, characters resistant to stagnancy and commitment, a time-flow that defies linearity; all vaguely reminiscent of Robbe-Grillet and the nouveau roman. Wong's work returns to the inability to define longing, to accept the gravity of living, to allow satiety to stop movement, to acknowledge mortality. The episodic digenesis, fractured by elisions that defy deterministic explanations, simply refuses to yield: to logic, to convention, to old age. Through his idiosyncratic work, Wong has demonstrated an unconditionally personal love for cinema.
Suggested Reading
(click cover or title for more info)
Wong Kar-Wai: Auteur of Time (Bfi World Directors)
by Stephen Teo
Director - Selected filmography and DVDBeaver links:
The Grandmaster (2013), Ashes of Time ReDux (2008), My Blueberry Nights (2007), Eros (2004) (segment "The Hand"), 2046 (2004), In the Mood for Love (2000), Happy Together (1997), Fallen Angels (1995), Ashes of Time (1994), Chungking Express (1994), Days of Being Wild (1991),
As Tears Go By (1988)