Wong Kar Wai - Feature Films, 1988-2007

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"

?!?!

I do agree that overuse of the Mamas and the Papas is a slight misstep in an otherwise great film.

chungking, no?

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

― flying squid attack (tipsy mothra), Monday, August 17, 2009 1:11 AM (9 hours ago) Bookmark

this is very OTM - it's about the only film of his I'd watch without first preparing a huge pot of coffee and taping my eyes open before watching

WKW's films benefit hugely from second viewings, or from reading spoilers so you know the general plot outline that all his dreamy sequences reference obliquely

despite California Dreamin', WKW really does use music impeccably; I really, really, really have to thank him for introducing me to Xavier Cugat's 'Perfidia'

I mean, you would never ever otherwise be able to get me to say that an acapella version of 'Only You' is good quality music

faye wong singing that cranberries song was way more annoying than mamas & papas

you sir, are dead wrong

that reminds me, the best part about As Tears Go By is Sandy Lam's version of 'Take My Breath Away'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K38Ov3U71ag

you guys should also seek out FW's Cocteau Twins covers

wong kar wai is boring i would rather watch, i dunno, bullwinkle cartoons

you sir, are dead wong

WKW's films benefit hugely from second viewings, or from reading spoilers so you know the general plot outline that all his dreamy sequences reference obliquely

despite California Dreamin', WKW really does use music impeccably; I really, really, really have to thank him for introducing me to Xavier Cugat's 'Perfidia'

― a being that goes on two legs and is ungrateful (dyao), Monday, August 17, 2009 3:27 PM (4 hours ago)

this is so otm, and by otm I mean OFF the mark

kind of bewildered by people who hate 2046, I think it's just overwhelmingly beautiful. but I like Eyes Wide Shut and other pretentious shit too.

^^ OTM

yeah, but without the eyes wide shut bit, eyes wide shit morelike

Lol Kubrick, agreed. But 2046 is a film of wonders though isn't it? Like akm said, so overwhelingly beautiful

yeah if Happy Together and 2046 are my two favourite def, with Happy Together barely clinching it

A Christopher Doyle poll would be interesting as well.

Yeah except I've never seen his crazy ass film.

western directors don't know what to do with doyle anyway, so it might as well be a wkw poll

How about a Non-WKW Cinematography of Christoper Doyle poll? I'll start one soon.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

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.

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.