Wong Kar Wai and his films

One thing that struck me off guard was the negative feedback I've been hearing from people in the film class who had watched a Wong Kar Wai (WKW) film over the easter holiday. I wasn't really surprised shortly after, because I recalled how I felt after viewing a WKW film for the first time. It was Chungking Express. I said "what the hell" to myself as I watched Quentin Tarantino praise the film in Special Features. I felt he overrated it.

Okay. I have grabbed your attention by slamming his film, which a lot of people regarded as a classic and one of WKW's best.

Fast forward to April the twenty second, two thousand and nine. I have seen every WKW film but My Blueberry Nights. I like his style and vision. Quentin Tarantino did not overrate Chungking Express. I was just too "inside the box" when viewing it. Now what is "inside the box"? Inside the box, there is the conventional three-act story structure, the commercial value everyone expects from a film (how movies are tear jerkers/crowd pleasers - like Slumdog Millionaire), orthodox camerawork, editing, and so on. I was too inside the box; therefore, I did not like Chungking Express.

I watched (in chronological order): In the Mood for Love, Fallen Angels, Days of Being Wild, As Tears Go By, 2046, Ashes of Time, and Happy Together. I came to a conclusion. That to appreciate WKW's style, one has to at least watch three (or all. Yeah, all) of his films to understand his distinct style inside out.

Don't slam him just because his movies have such thin plots. Yes, they have thin plots, but before one watches a WKW film, one has to understand and appreciate that the substance isn't all piled on the plot, it is hidden and concealed beneath the characters. The characters are the film. Their actions and thoughts (delivered through voiceovers) convey the themes of the movie. In short, WKW's films do not focus on any sort of conventional three-act story structure. His films are more focused on the characters themselves, their conflicts, and their resolutions. His films are more focused on themes - relationships, love, memories, and the past. His films, to sum up (again), are thematically rich, and his characters bring his films to life. Also, on a side note, his characters are anything but heroes. In WKW's universe, everyone lives in a realistic world, everyone is the Everyday Man, the Layman. It is his portrayal of characters which makes the audience feel so much empathy (and very often sympathy) towards his characters. Or not.

Now, a lot of his films are not very accessible to the "mainstream audience" (As Tears Go By, his debut, is an exception). This is because his films are known to be subtle. This factor might make the audience feel no em/sympathy towards his characters because we are so accustomed to movies baby-feeding us with information about the people onscreen. When I was watching Chungking Express, I thought to myself, "what the hell is the Faye Wong character doing in Tony Leung's apartment? Uh, Wong Kar Wai, I think you are being too bombastic." You see, his films require the audience to think. And the more you think, the more substance you find in his characters. Not all of his films are subtle, as some definitely contain more exposition than emotion, i.e. the excessive use of narration. 2046, anyone? So the Faye Wong in Tony Leung's apartment scenes are not bombastic. But are there any bombastic moments in WKW's feature films? Yes, of course there are. In Ashes of Time, Carina Lau (screen time - close to zero) unreasonably strokes and cavorts her horse; later on, Brigette Lin is shown writhing against a tree. In my opinion, these scenes are bombastic. I couldn't detect emotion or subtlety in it. It seems as if WKW was trying to make his film ultra-arty. I hope those scenes mean something to him.

(To be continued..?)