Wong Kar Wai - Feature Films, 1988-2007

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

I'm cool with all of this except DoBW placing so low, it's considered by many (in HK) to be the pinnacle of HK cinema.

0 votes for Ashes is a shame. In retrospect I should have voted for that just to give it some much-needed love (although HT didn't get enough either so whatever.)

i think chungking express is overrated here. it's a lot of fun, but i don't quite class it with the other top 5.

I honestly think, Alex, that you're the only one in the world who likes that movie!

nah i love ashes. just didn't vote for it.

xp nah I know plenty of other folks who do too. Quentin Tarantino likes it too, I think!

i think he likes CK Express more... he paid for the distribution costs on its first US theater run IIRC.

as much as Paasion of the Christ? xp

Just checked my Asian Cult Cinema book and he gives Ashes 4 stars and Chungking and Days two and two and half respectively. Admittedly that book came out in 1997 so maybe Thomas Weisser changed his mind, but yeah I'm not the only one so *blows raspberry*

xxxp the DVD was definitely initially on Rolling Thunder or whatever it was called.

Thomas Weisser is like the Chuck Eddy of film, why on earth would you actually keep a copy of that book!!!!?????!?!??!

LOL

Anyway I'm guessing Thomas Weisser's taste in HK cinema is closer to mine than yours is. Don't you hate yakuza films too. Talk about suspect tastes.

i hate all that shit which is why I like WKW.

One doesn't have anything to do with the other (although I don't agree with Weisser that Chungking and Days are boring.)

Bordwell loves Ashes IIRC

Yeah, but he's the Frank Kogan of film so fuck that guy too.

it's considered by many (in HK) to be the pinnacle of HK cinema

this may be true of HK critics but I have yet to meet an actual HKer who loves Wong Kar-Wai

"it's considered by many (in HK) to be the pinnacle of HK cinema"

Yeah this is bullshit.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong_Film_Awards#Best_100_Chinese_Motion_Pictures

I know that DoBW pretty much swept the HKFA when it came out, but I think it was due to a feeling of "finally, one of ours is also doing arthouse cinema"; the thought was that WKW was legitimizing HK cinema in the eyes of the West, for better or for worse

So does the fact that A Better Tomorrow is one spot higher mean that its the super pinnacle of HK cinema?

I would watch A Better Tomorrow over Days of Being Wild

I'd watch A Better Tomorrow 2 over either.

Happy Together

just watched happy together. def his most narratively straight forward film outside of as tears go by, of the ones I've seen (haven't seen ashes of time or my blueberry nights). man, when tony leung gets left alone with that tape recorder...

I saw Chungking last night for the first time since soon after it came out. (A seemingly tipsy Christopher Doyle was there to introduce the film.) I like the Faye Wong/Tony Leung half (or more); the Brigitte Lin/Takeshi Kaneshiro section doesn't go anywhere for me, and he's thoroughly annoying. Overall, I'm somewhat puzzled as to why this is so highly regarded.

Cuz it looks great!

That said it's not my favorite of his. It's still ranked tied for fifth on my list with Fallen Angels (although the bits with Kaneshiro and his father are probably my favorite bits in either film.)

xp to think that that would be enough.

(A seemingly tipsy Christopher Doyle was there to introduce the film)

this is either just what CD is like, or what CD is like all the time

wondered if this might be a bump w/a trailer for his martial arts flick

Honestly, I didn't think Chungking looked all that great, especially all that stop-motion stuff near the beginning. I realize a film like Lost in Translation probably wouldn't exist without Chungking--and also realize I'm opening myself up to ridicule here--but to me, that's a much better looking film.

Thanks for the clarification on Doyle. I was hesitant to say he was drunk--I guess that's just his manner.

its def a possibility that hes drunk/buzzed p much all the time i think

its def a possibility that hes drunk/buzzed p much all the time i think

I recall the voice did a piece on him mid-decade - the title was "Legend Of Drunken Master".

would read

there is a book he put out a few years ago too. some of his weird photo-collage things he makes on set are real nice.

Here's a link for the Voice piece:

http://www.villagevoice.com/2004-08-03/film/the-legend-of-drunken-master/

Very much confirms my initial impression. Doyle mentioned last night that he had one of those photo-collage exhibits in a Toronto gallery right now.

y'huh, i just googled to see if i could include a collage & found that there's another book, a cloud in trousers (his other book being called RGB something-something-something).

thanks for the link!

Overall, I'm somewhat puzzled as to why this he is so highly regarded.

"I realize a film like Lost in Translation probably wouldn't exist without Chungking--and also realize I'm opening myself up to ridicule here--but to me, that's a much better looking film."

I can't remember anything about the visuals in Lost in Translation (outside what for all intensive purposes could be very nice stock footage of Tokyo and Bill Murray's mug) whereas there are sequences (admittedly mostly from the second half with Faye Wong in Tony Leung's apartment) from Chungking Express that have stuck with me for almost twenty years.

it's amazing how much of Chungking I had forgotten -- almost everything -- incl what a cutie Takeshi Kaneshiro is.

http://images4.static-bluray.com/reviews/3488_1.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/qyfUz.jpg

well, less so w/ pig action

pig looks really into it

http://i.imgur.com/U9zrq.gif

http://dgeneratefilms.com/critical-essays/two-greatest-films-polls-yield-different-results-for-best-chinese-films

I'm guessing that pig scene is from Fallen Angels? rewatching in a few days.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aUuei4WOHw

for the good doctor

http://i.imgur.com/FRUIH.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szvRRy8Lkz4