Wong Kar-wai seems to hold an infamous status with many fans of film. I am here to report that I mostly think – after diving through every feature film of his – I think he’s mostly way too much bark and not nearly enough bite. He has got a great visual sense, but its impact is dulled over time. Many of his films feel like they are less than sum of its parts. It has been interesting and rewarding to go through all of his films, but I do doubt I will rewatch many of them. So it goes.
10. My Blueberry Nights [2007]
“It wasn’t so hard to cross that street after all. It all depends on who’s waiting for you on the other side.”
In Wong Kar-wai’s only English language film (so far), something did feel uncontrollably off and dare I say lost in translation. This film felt like an American impression of a Wong Kar-wai film. The look was there. The yearning was there. But something felt off. Why? I am not so sure. It feels too simplistic to say it was simply that it was in English with actors from the United States and the UK. It was a worthy experiment though.
9. Fallen Angels [1995]
It was really fitting to accidentally pair this film with As Tears Go By. Wong Kar-wai’s vision would only be fully realized when he went full-yearning with his films. Whenever he blended genres, the balance would be off more often than not. Tears works the best of all his genre films because it was genre first and foremost. It is odd to say this about Wong Kar-wai when his most celebrated (and best) film is In the Mood for Love. But after going back through all of his films, I would have liked to see him do more crime films like Tears than Angels.
8. Ashes of Time Redux [2008]
This film has some of the biggest Hong Kong stars from my lifetime. This film is visually stunning and beautiful. There are a lot of incredible ideas explored in this film. Yearning. Regret. Memory. Vital ideas to the human experience! And yet, the film never really seemed to come together. In my first time viewing it, I cannot really explain why. It feels connected to Wong Kar-wai’s work overall, and that is nice. But on its own, it does not feel itself significant.
7. Chungking Express [1994]
I have wondered a few times if I simply am too old to be enchanted with the stylings of Wong Kar-wai. This film in particular feels like something that would have run me over like a truck when I was a teenager getting into film. Stylistic enough to be interesting while remaining accessible? Recognizable soundtrack? The possibility of a manic pixie dream girl curing a broken heart? This has everything that 17-year-old me probably would have thought was brilliant. Nothing about this really moved me though. I find Kar-wai fascinating in many ways, but I think he may just not be for me. This film was at least not boring though like some of his worst films.
6. Days of Being Wild [1990]
One of Wong Kar-wai’s earliest film is technically the first film in the light trilogy that contains the far more infamous In the Mood for Love and 2046. If those films delve deeper into the feeling on getting older and missing out on opportunities, this film is far more about being young and being a menace to yourself and those around you. Your mission when you’re young is to try to be selfish when you don’t have a complete understanding of who you are and what you want and why you act the way you do. It is a mission that few are up for accomplishing. While this film does not achieve Wong Kar-wai’s highest heights, it is simple and more effective than much of his future work.
5. The Grandmaster [2013]
“To say there are no regrets in life is just to fool yourself. How boring it would be without regrets.”
This film strikes me as something of a mess that one should just absorb rather than examine too closely. It is visually beautiful. Some of the fights are a blast. There is some yearning. There are quests to avenge family. And all of that is fun enough. I do not really connect hard with his action films though. I am not sure why yet.
4. Happy Together [1997]
As I have discovered to my dismay that I am not a Wong Kar-wai guy, I have had to readjust my expectations for his films as I dig through his work. Thus, I was happy to learn that I found this film to be quite solid and interesting. It is a mood piece of what it feels like to be in a co-dependent, roller coaster relationship. Leslie Cheung and Tony Leung play a dysfunctional on-and-off-again couple as they try to exist peacefully (or not try as the case may be). Wong Kar-wai captures the intoxication and the frustration of being in this kind of relationship so well. How can it be that one can be perfectly happy and miserable in moments so close together?
3. As Tears Go By [1988]
Watching Wong Kar-wai’s debut feature film was illuminating to say the least. It contains aspects of his forever themes: yearning, love lost, lust, unrequited love, etc…but in the context of a full-on genre film. The crime stuff here is really fun and well done. But it is now obvious in retrospect what he was actually interested in.
As someone who has grown quite frustrated diving deep into Wong Kar-wai’s filmography, this film was a true breath of fresh air. It is clearly one of his best films and makes me yearn for him being someone he’s not. An artist should chase what drives them always – but that does not mean what drives them is what they are best at.
The film does a really compelling job of exploring the dangers of letting ego drive us instead of being true to what is good for us. The film is a fun crime drama. The film also sprinkles in great bits about yearning. Great stuff!
2. 2046 [2004]
While 2046 does not carry the heaviness that In the Mood for Love manages to embody, it does manage to capture something truly profound. I do not think I have seen another work of art just truly explore just how much you are impacted by previous experience romantic experiences. The past never leaves you, but that journey can turn you into a completely different person. The movie is also just very hot so that’s nice too.
1. In the Mood for Love [2000]
The Reel World 