The World of Wong Kar-Wai (pt 1)

Recently I have been challenging myself to get back into watching films, trying to get through at least one (or part of one) each day. Movies and TV had always been a consistent part of my media consumption, but the last few years I have felt the sheen wear off with a lot of what was being released. Some good ones would pop up here and there, but seemed to get washed out with the constant remakes and hero flicks soon enough. So I decided to dig around and actually challenge myself with both new and old releases of interesting finds. Criterion recently added almost all of Wong Kar-Wai’s films so I figured that was a good place to start. During college Chungking Express and In the Mood for Love struck me in an interesting way, instantly propelling the director to being one of my all time faves. But in this renewed search I realized I hadn't really seen any of his other films and I wanted to see how each stacked up. Below I will give micro-reviews of each and will likely continue a similar format for the other films/directors I have been exploring.

As Tears Go By (1988)

This one is very far removed from anything resembling what Wong Kar-wai’s later films are like. Other than some broad strokes as far as including the criminal underground and some light yearning, this one feels very strange. It is like he watched a bunch of US 80’s action crime drama’s and condensed them down into one movie. Everything from the writing to art direction to the corny 80’s sax/synth music that saturates each scene screams 80’s. Granted I know this is mostly a product of its time as far as what audiences were likely looking for, especially out of a directorial debut. I feel like he almost had to make something more middle of the road like this in order to make his later films. That said, it isn’t a terrible movie from a technical standpoint per se, but the cheesy aspects of it make it hard to keep the audiences attention in a meaningful way. I found myself not really caring about any of the characters and laughing more often than not during what is supposed to be a ‘serious scene.’ To be honest I watched the whole thing and took almost nothing away from what the plot was going for. The ending involved some vague speeches about earning respect by being a hardass then both the main mob dudes end up dying in a really stupid gun fight. A good lesson overall that every artists start is usually just practice for finding out what they really want to communicate later.

TLDR: 1/5 stars, a mob guy who really wants to fuck his cousin goes into hiding and gets to fuck his cousin in between meandering scenes of hot-headed dudes talking about money and fish balls *cue sax solo*

Days of Being Wild (1990)

This is the first part of an informal trilogy with In the Mood for Love and 2046, the latter two being way more connected than this one tbh. The only character I can tell that over arches both is Li-zhen, introduced early on as a shop keeper that catches Yuddy’s eye and later is one of the leads in In the Mood for Love. This was a nice breath of fresh air after Wong’s odd directorial debut and felt more like he really leveled up as far as what his personal style really is. Yuddy is shown to be a charming playboy with perhaps some ties to the criminal world. It never seems entirely clear what he does for a living but we know he lives in a decent place for the time when a later character (Mimi) comments on his apartment/rent. Yuddy quickly develops a relationship with Li-zhen by persistently visiting her shop, but when it comes time to actually commit he spurns her. A similar situation unfolds with his next romance with a cabaret dancer named Mimi. It feels like this relationship may actually pan out, perhaps because Mimi is more related to his attraction to his adoptive mother (former prostitute), but ultimately dies out when Yuddy ditches her to find his real mother in the Philippines. Mimi ends up trying to start a relationships with Yuddy’s childhood friend Zeb and Li-zhen has an almost romance with a cop named Tide before he quits to become a sailor. Overall this film has a lot of elements of what would become Wong Kar-wai’s signature style as far as setting, art direction, and themes of loneliness/poverty/yearning for things just out of our grasp. But it didn't really hit as hard as some of his other films. I think it had a strong start and middle but jumped around a bit towards the middle-ending. It felt like it needed an extra 20–30 minutes to bridge the gap between the love story aspects and the more action packed ending in the Philippines. I did enjoy the overlap of Tide running into Yuddy in the Philippines, each living a sort of new life, and each coming to new conclusions about how they view themselves in the world. Yuddy discovering his biological mother is rich and paid his adoptive mother to hide him in Hong Kong and Tide straight chillin as a cool, world travelling sailor. They end up meeting and traveling together on a train after Tide helps Yuddy escape a gang he steals a passport from. Their conversation on this train brings home a lot of meditations by different characters throughout the film and the fact that Yuddy is kind of full of shit and needs to get over himself if he wants to move forward in life. There is also a good lesson to be learned (that is echoed in later films) that quitting being a cop to pursue literally anything else is cool as hell. My critique is more I feel like the whole jump to this other country felt a little sudden and don’t think Yuddy would have survived with a gunshot on a 12 hour train trip like that but what do I know. Overall, had some great lines/nuggets of existential thought but somewhat lagged and felt incomplete in between these introspective moments.

TLDR: 3/5 stars, a guy gets laid a lot and talks about how he is a bird with no legs that can’t land but finds out that bird doesn’t exist and also he might want to fuck his adoptive mom so he treats his partners poorly.

Chungking Express (1994)

This one has been written about to death and not sure what else I can add to the knowledge soup at this point. I feel like a plot synopsis may be a bit much considering most people have seen this one and is generally critically acclaimed. After watching all of his films, this one and 2046 rank to me as his absolute best. The characters all have these unique quirks that make me fall in love with each of them despite two of them being cops (gross but w/e one quits eventually). A big theme of the movie is caring for and pining after those we want/lost through objects. From He Qiwu’s pineapple habit to Faye breaking into Cop 663's (just realizing he is never named) house to clean/decorate it to Cop 663 giving pep talks to the objects he interacts with around his home. Each character is trying to connect with someone beyond themselves and finds that connection through the non-simultaneous sharing of space, either literally or more representationally. Each story blends together very well and addresses the complications of falling in love, dealing with heartbreak, and falling in love again as we balance this with the greater questions of ‘who am I and what the hell am I doing with this life?’ Another thing I really appreciate about all of this is how it focuses on more everyday people. No one is rich or terribly successful, each is just a human trying to carve out a small level of comfort, security, and love in the world. Which is where most of humanity finds itself no matter the backdrop of location. Personally I am tired of stories about rich people or someone poor who realizes grand dreams of riches and get consumed by it, blah blah blah. Gimme something realistic to the majority of us that get dumped and still have to slog through our day jobs that never pay enough while we are simultaneously trying to improve our future. In a similar vein I love how heartbreak is represented as something that blends into the daily routine as time passes, suspended in time and space through the objects that remind us of a point that we cannot reclaim no matter what we try. It is a unique yearning that settles into the bones and never really leaves us, but also doesn't prevent us from loving again. Each interaction we have in in this way may change us as we take on the attributes of the other, whether it be a mannerism, a food craving, or job (specifically how Faye became a flight attendant and Cop 663 quit to do Faye’s job). My only very minor critique is I wanted to see more of the woman in the blonde wig as far as characterization, but maybe that was the point insofar as keeping her more of a mysterious, aloof figure to counter He Qiwu’s hopeless romanticism.

TLDR: 5/5 stars, a group of lovable weirdos pining after their exes and eventually each other. No one ever fucks but these characters are too cool to fuck. Also a woman in a blonde wig shoots some guys.