Wong Kar Wai

Cinema as pure poetry in motion never made much sense to me, until I was exposed to Wong Kar-Wai's In The Mood For Love . Sure, I had seen certain mild and beautiful arthouse romances before, but they always seemed too engorged in their own efforts to indulge themselves that they failed to impress my slightly skewed view on "real" love. Then, one of the true masters of subtlety and passion enchanted me with his story of star-crossed infatuates lamenting over the depressive questionability of their marriages. As most were, my completely hooked nature over In The Mood For Love , alongside other personal ... Read Full Story

I wonder what the reaction to My Blueberry Nights would have been if it were Wong Kar-wai’s first film instead of just his first English language film. Everything I’ve seen in way of critical reaction is polite, when it really ought to be anything but. My Blueberry Nights suggests a filmmaker for sale–nothing in Wong’s other work ever even suggested he’d write such an atrocious screenplay. He usually goes a long way to cast a film well, but here… Norah Jones is utterly incapable of acting. It’s more amateurish than a carpet commercial on a UHF station. The frequent use of her music is ... Read Full Story

I never know how to describe Ashes of Time . The first–and probably last–time I tried, I describe it as a mix of Magnolia and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon . As difficult as it is to describe, it’s got to be impossible to advertise–a character-based martial arts film, where fight scenes lack any visceral impact. Wong stylizes them, but not for any entertainment value. Given he’s become a more recognized and marketable filmmaker since the film’s initial release, as this “redux” edition started, I wondered if he’d tried to make it more palatable to any of the fans he picked up following that Norah ... Read Full Story

Writing about Wong Kar-Wai can feel like dancing about architecture, or more accurately, trying to draw a blueprint based on an inexplicably moving dance. Through slow-motion, gorgeous color, music for which the word "evocative" doesn't begin to do justice, exquisite sound design, rhythmic editing, and the sympathetic and often beautiful faces of his actors, Wong's films weave a web of seductive grace, leaving you too bedazzled to resist the narcotic bite of the director. He has us at hello, or rather, at the moment Nat King Cole beckons in his honeyed voice and Zhang Ziyi casts a fleeting, teasing glance in our direction. Actually, ... Read Full Story

New York readers Wong Kar Wai will be at the Apple Store in SoHo to talk about the music & film "Ashes of Time Redux". This weekend, while he is in town for the New York Film Festival, there will be a conversation with filmmaker Wong Kar Wai. He will discuss how music is used in his films and show scenes from "Ashes of Time Redux." October 4th, 3:00 p.m. Apple Store, SoHo 103 Prince Street New York City, NY 10012 The event is free, seating is limited. After the event head over to the New York Film festival to catch the film showing ... Read Full Story