Wong Kar Wai - Feature Films, 1988-2007

It's pretty/artistic but the story is among his weakest of his acclaimed-tier films.

lmao I am completely not paying $12 each to stream these (or an incomplete $70 7-film bundle) when I could just watch these on Criterion Channel or buy the inevitable Blu-ray box 6 months from now.

also re: the damaged HAPPY TOGETHER footage, why excise it entirely instead of just subbing footage from an existing print? or is that much easier said than done?

These are great films but I agree re: price

I got nothing to do tonight so I’ll probably stream one of them but otherwise yeah, will probably wait for other venues

xxp I see subbed-in footage in restorations all the time. I haven't seen Happy Together, so maybe the footage is integral enough to make a noticeably lower quality substitution not worth it. Idk. You see it pretty frequently though, particularly with 2K and 4K restorations, and not just optical shots. Off the top of my head, there are a few long shots in Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant that are clearly from a poorer-quality print.

I think Fallen Angels has that romantic longing, the killer’s agent is completely alone throughout the movie but then suddenly meets He, a victim of the restaurant violence and the main character from the other half of the story

the idea that making a real lasting connection with another person is hard and that it would be extremely fortuitous for it to happen to anyone seems like the main theme of Wong’s movies

“I ask him to take me home. I haven't ridden pillion for a long time nor have I been this close to a man in ages. The road home isn't very long, and I know I'll be getting off soon. But at this moment, I'm feeling such lovely warmth.”

https://www.criterion.com/boxsets/4117-world-of-wong-kar-wai

lmao that sure was fast

do they not own blueberry nights

or Ashes of Time I guess

That's ok, I didn't want to own My Blueberry Nights either.

oh god blueberry nights is so terrible. i feel bad about wkw. the first film i saw by him was 2046 which i loved so much and i feel weirdly implicated in his subsequent decline/stalling

tbh i think only in the mood for love and happy together are very good but they're both so wonderful it feels like a miracle

happy together i saw at a p formative moment in my life and the cruising scenes, the romance of the flea-eaten flat with the mean ruined boyfriend. they left a mark.

in the mood for love feels subtle, rich and condensed but many of his other films feel haphazard. maybe i've just never understood his version of nouvelle vague im willing to concede that.

it does feel very condensed

You guys should I get a Blu-ray player (for this but also in general)?

I feel I may have missed the window on BR and physical media is obv on the way out and feel I should just skip it and embrace streaming and uhhh non-streaming digital formats wink wink but I also love physical media and WKW

Oh man that is super tempting
Not sure how many more times I need to watch these though

Hell of a bookshelf ornament though

You should absolutely get a blu-ray player. They are relatively affordable, I see a bunch on Amazon for $75 or less. Backwards compatible so you can save your DVDs. Physical media will never die, there will always be expensive curios like this, but the resignation with which people accept an all-streaming future seems insane to me. DVDs still look very good or great for the most part, and blu rays are cheaper than ever. These streaming platforms are not reliable. It's worth hanging onto every disc you can.

I use my Xbox as a blu ray player about half of the time

Yeah, they're all over the place. You could probably get one at Target or Best Buy or whatever for under $50. Obviously physical media has been headed for a niche since Napster, but its death is premature and exaggerated, and the only people that want it eliminated completely work for Disney and Apple and Amazon and Netflix. Fuck them!!!! Options!!!!! Also it's a film preservation issue, the myth that you can find "anything online" is going to bring about a world where you can't find anything.

im not sure how well his films have aged, though maybe now i can watch them comfortably without thinking they are all a bit too 90s. hes def overrated, or maybe he just does what he does, which is what makes him so good. always thought hed be a great music video director. did he do any? his little tic/trick of using one piece of music or one song over and over also got irritating.

"too 90s?"

He directed DJ Shadow's Six Days video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eY-eyZuW_Uk

Christopher Doyle was DP of Justin's "SexyBack" video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gOHvDP_vCs

(cue arguments about how much Doyle was responsible for the textures/feel of Wong's peak filmography)

WKW went out of his way to trash Doyle when I saw him speak way back when.

(Doyle shot the "6 Days" video as well, a song/video I'd never heard of until today)

Yeah I read somewhere they had a major falling out, will need to google for more...

something I saw said they were recently working together on restorations though

I had never seen one of his movies and finally saw In the Mood for Love. I loved it. So lush, gauzy, beautiful, and sad. The way the main characters "roleplay" their spouses' affair was so subtle and conveyed their damaged feelings so well.

Maggie Cheung's dresses were incredible (especially the lime green plaid). I will now probably be unsuccessful for the rest of my life in getting my wife to buy one.

Are there any reviews of the new edits/versions anywhere?

In the coming 5 weeks a local cinema is organising screening of the following 4K restored movies:
Chungking Express
Fallen Angels
Happy Together
In The Mood For Love
2046
I've never seen any of them so may sign up for all five

Lucky you!

Faye Wong in Chungking ftw

x-post thank you :) Tickets for Chungking Express ordered! I can't even remember the last time I went to a cinema

if you do plan/have the chance to see more, go for Happy Together and In the Mood for Love, I say

I’d go for Chungking and Fallen myself

Really just go for all of them

In the mood and happy together are the only really 'great' ones

https://asia.si.edu/events-overview/films/

The Freer has a virtual WKW festival starting June 11. What besides In the Mood for Love do I need to see?

There was a retrospective at Anthology Film Archives where I caught "Chungking Express" and "Days of Being Wild". Saw "In The Mood for Love" on the big screen when it came out. The rest I've only seen on video.

all his films I’ve seen (in the mood, chungking, ashes of time, fallen angels) are well worth the price of admission, but only in the mood for love I’d call a great film, chungking just a tier below

thanks for the feedback everyone, it's appreciated! I'll try to go see as many as I can :)

i remember how gorgeous 2046 looked on the big screen when i saw it originally, but some combination of the look of that particular film aging badly and needing the big screen has meant that it has never come close again

happy together is definitely the equal of in the mood for love i think, a really great film about lots of things: buenos aires, loneliness, apartment buildings, and being young and gay in a big city.

this is an incredibly controversial piping-hot take but the order in which you listed them is actually my ranking of them all, FALLEN ANGELS is incredibly underrated and cool and excellent, ITMFL is probably the "best" in terms of like the most impactful and stuff, idk, I just didn't click with it super hard when I watched it (though I need a rewatch), HAPPY TOGETHER is honestly one of the best and most groundbreaking works of queer cinema imo, I would say all of those are like 10/10 essential except 2046 which you could skip if you really wanted to.

all the leaves are Brown