Wong Kar Wai - Feature Films, 1988-2007

ok, that cuts it down to 4. that's about all i can do for now... may be inspired for a massive rescreening sesh to pull the trigger on one.

In the Mood For Love and Chungking Express are the obvious contenders, but I have a soft spot for Fallen Angels.

fallen angels would be my pick

In the Mood for Love is one of my favourite films this decade.

Happy Together

PREDICTION: Happy Together will get robbed. xpost

I voted for Happy Together.

A perfect film 1) Happy Together (1997)
small margin behind 2) Ashes of Time (1994) (which is seriously underrated for some crazy reason)
another small margin behind in a tie for 3) Days of Being Wild (1991)
In the Mood for Love (2000)
these are basically the same movie except the latter has poorer lighting tie for 4) Chungking Express (1994)
Fallen Angels (1995)
remember this being kind of over-baked now, but still well worthwhile 5) 2046 (2004)
this is decent HK gangster flick, but lacks trademark cinematography 6) As Tears Go By (1988)
this is garbage 7) My Blueberry Nights (2007)

The run from Days to In The Mood is maybe the greatest single directorial run in the history of cinema. I could re-watch any of those films a kajillion times.

Actually that should be less lighting, not necessarily poorer for Fallen Angels.

I discovered Wong Kar Wai when I walked into 2046 knowing nothing except for what it said in the film festival catalogue I saw it as part of. I was convinced until someone bought In The Mood For Love for me on DVD that it had to be a fluke, that no director could stumble across this exact combination of muteness and stylization and carpeted over feeling more than once, that it was this perfect movie synthesised with my enjoyment as its sole motivation, like it was the most intensely focus-grouped movie I have ever seen. Happy Together was like a perfect synthesis of Malick and Kenneth anger, a bruised, defeated elegy to fucked up relationships, the romance for shitty apartments you used to live in, with a vested interest in some redeeming notion of queerness.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQe6v0v_0uQ

In The Mood For Love is a good insomnia cure.

Happy Together

havent seen as tears go by, and easily eliminate 2046 and blueberry nights... i guess in the mood?

do not see how you could categorise 2046 together, that is mad rong in my opinion

I've only seen Fallen Angels & 2046, so I won't be voting in this, but I'm flabbergasted that anyone would vote for Fallen Angels over 2046.

my favorite quote of wong kar wai's is when he was asked about the then-controversial opening scene of "happy together" which has tony leung bonking another dude in graphic detail and he was like "yeah, if people come late to the cinema they might think it's a film about two brothers"

HAHAHAHAHAHA

I've seen all of them but Ashes Of Time, though I hope to catch Redux on video in the next few weeks. Really enjoy them all except My Blueberry Nights which I couldn't even finish.

Went with Happy Together, though I think In The Mood For Love is just as good. My favorite Leslie Cheung performance gives it the edge.

I think my order of preference would be Happy Together > In the Mood for Love > Fallen Angels > Chungking Express > Days of Being Wild > 2046 > As Tears Go By

my faves are Days of Being Wild, Happy Together and 2046, but I don't particularly feel like choosing btwn em.

ive talked about this elsewhere but i happen to think 2046 is straight self-parodic garbage

In the Mood for Love = accidental, beautiful
2046 = deliberate, disastrous

i've seen 2046 three times now, the first time i was not feeling it at all, the second time i realized it was much better than i had originally thought and the third time (seen in succession after Days of Being Wild and In The Mood) I realized it's place in his legacy as closure of several interwoven thematical arcs that weave in and out of most of his strongest work. it made much more sense when seen as a trilogy and while i don't think it's his strongest work, it shits from on high all over Ashes of Time wtf AlexSF.

In the Mood for Love = accidental, beautiful
2046 = deliberate, disastrous

― sir-mounter (Eric H.), Sunday, August 16, 2009 8:28 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

accidental how?

also, can i just say i <3 tony leung and maggie chung... if it wasn't for WKW i may never have paid so much attention to these guys.

In the Mood for Love = yeah yeah yeah, pretty ppl in slow motion w/ same song under it really makes romance seem important.

2046 is a contender for my Ten Best of '00s (admittedly worst decade in cinmea history, far as I can judge).

Fallen Angels uber alles

Days of Being Wild a close second

romance? itmfl is all about heartbreak and fucking over the people you love imo. would watch with you and discus.

I will also LOL if As Tears Go By gets any votes, as basically that means you hate WKW's guts and wish he would die

it's his most succesful film to date iirc

Chunging Express is the best - the least pretentious of them all, followed by 2046 - the most pretentious of them all.

He is at his best on the extremes.

toss up between days of being wild and happy together... voted the former

I have traumatic teenage memories of getting scolded for watching Happy Together when my parents walked in during the scene where one of the characters was getting a handjob in a theatre.

As such, I voted for chungking express because I have lots of happy memories of that.

i haven't seen blueberry nights -- i think i'm afraid of denting my wong idolatry. but of the rest, it's very hard to choose. i think in the mood is maybe his most perfect movie -- if i had to pick one movie to represent his whole thing, i'd go with that -- but i think i might like the scruffiness of happy together and the dizziness of 2046 better. really, the run of ashes of time thru 2046 is pretty amazing. (nothing wrong with the first 3, they only suffer in comparison. well, and as tears go by has a sort of dated '80s cheesiness to it -- albeit an attractive one.)

as tears go by is fucking awful
in the mood for love ftw but rogue props to fallen angels, days of being wild

other poll ideas: dobw v itmfl v 2046, chungking express v fallen angels, wkw v stephen chow

I had a friend who listed "Chunking Express" as her favorite film on facebook for the longest time

"it made much more sense when seen as a trilogy and while i don't think it's his strongest work, it shits from on high all over Ashes of Time wtf AlexSF."

It's not my fault you hate Sergio Leone and Tsui Hark, Shasta.

Seriously if you don't like Chinese sword epics then I guess I could see how Ashes might not be your thing (and I know Shasta has suspect opinions about Yakuza films so maybe it's just a prejudice on his part) but if you love 'em and you love Wong and Chris Doyle, I don't understand how you couldn't think this is very nearly his best picture (one upped only ever so slightly by the even more well put together Happy Together). It's gorgeous and melancholic and everything you'd expect from Wong's other films with fantastic (and gorgeous) acting. Aces stuff.

Hate to be boring, but gotta go with In the Mood for Love (which, yes, IS romantic and also unbearably wrenching...)

I agree 2046 is "deliberate" but wouldn't go so far as "disasterous"....but i do think it is a failure. Though sometimes I think the deliberateness is an intentional, almost nihilistic parody of the "romantic" elements of the earlier movies. just a thought.

Chungking Express is another favorite, and Days of Being Wild has maybe one of my favorite opening shots/music ever...

I love almost all of these movies. 6 years ago, a friend had acess to a threatre at U.T. and told me to be there at 8p.m. He said I could bring one friend, but not to tell anyone else. When I got there, he had beer and popcorn, and In The Mood For Love. Watching it, alomst alone in that theatre, and not knowing anything about the movie; it was amazing. We screen movies all summer in that theatre, but none was as breathtaking as ITMFL.

surprised myself by voting for fallen angels on the basis of, which one would i most want to watch right now.

of what I've seen I'd say 2046 and Happy Together are the two most ambitious movies.

i've seen 2046 three times now ...

it made much more sense when seen as a trilogy

a trilogy... of itself!!

I have learnt the following:

Really wanna watch Ashes of Time.

Really don't want to watch Blueberry nights.

Really wanna re-watch 2046.

Voted Days Of Being Wild. Happy Together is his most visually annoying film - all those filters, the timelapse scenes, the Hong Kong upside down travelouge.

I'll rep for Ashes Of Time too, th redux on Blu-Ray is amazing (though ironically the most gorgeous and HD enhanced image in the package - the sea at Cannes - is in the extras, not the film.)

Have seen Days of Being Wild, As Tears Go By, Chungking Express, In the Mood for Love and 2046. didn't really get 2046 the first time and had a hard time getting through Chungking Express with all that California dreamin going on. pretty hard to argue against In the Mood for Love here which is a terrific movie in every way.

"Happy Together is his most visually annoying film"

?!?!

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

https://www.ifccenter.com/series/the-world-of-wong-kar-wai/

Daaaamn

box set is 50% off at barnes and noble rn if 6th ave is too far a trek

A very nice piece on the stars of WKW films: https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/7448-the-stars-in-wong-kar-wai-s-universe

I noticed Ashes of Time Redux is on Mubi so I rewatched it. I saw it when the Redux edit was released in 2008 (on a big screen, thankfully) and I remembered it as gorgeous and nearly incomprehensible. Rewatch confirmed both, tho the plot strands do more or less all connect. It just gets hard in the middle to keep track of who’s in love with/wants to kill whom. But just one ravishing image after another, and the very ‘90s high contrast saturated look feels dated now in a good way — it makes it aesthetically singular. Never seen fight scenes like the ones in this movie, the slow-motion blues are really effective and evocative. Not Wong’s best, but in my second tier of faves by him.

Slow-motion blurs that should say.

The original 1994 release of Ashes of Time is sublime

Is that available anywhere? Seems like Redux is the only print in circulation.

It’s on backchannels. There is no HD version of it available, so it’s basically VCD quality. I just hate his revisionist bullshit, as the film was perfect as is

I thought the revisions were partly because he didn’t have the original master to work from anymore. But not having seen the original I don’t know what changed.

I’ve seen both (might even have the VHS copy I picked up in Montreal Chinatown around) but don’t remember any significant differences, except that the blood spatters in Redux seemed faker (CGI?).

I’ve always been a little disappointed by it in either version, likely because I was expecting something far more experimental, non-narrative, and “difficult”, based on all the wailing and gnashing of teeth by Western HK movie fanboys at the time (check out vintage HKMDB reviews for some classic “you got arthouse in my grindhouse!” sentiments), or J. Hoberman’s memorable description of it as “The Seven Samurai at Marienbad”. But aside from the Brigitte Lin sequence (my favorite section) it seemed relatively straightforward.

In the long run I prefer Tsui Hark’s The Blade, which has sometimes been viewed as an “answer” to Wong. Certainly the character of the dreamy, romantically longing heroine who narrates the film feels like a pointed parody, especially since there’s otherwise zero romanticism in the Tsui, just sweaty, half-naked, seemingly deranged men beating and flogging and chopping the hell out of each other.

There are a hell of a lot more differences between the two versions than blood spatters. For god’s sake, the entire colour palette was altered. The blue skies in the original look like teal vomit in the Redux. It’s shorter. The score was redone. Even the credits are completely different.

Tsui Hark’s The Blade is magnificent. Very fortunate to have seen it in 35mm some years back. Maybe the single best wuxia film of the last 40 years

Ah see I like the weird palette of Redux. But would be interested to see the original too.

I remember seeing the original and thinking that it couldn't have seemed more incoherent if all the shots had been edited together in random order.