Wong Kar-Wai


  • Creates films filled with dazzling images- focus on visual expression. 
  • Romanticism
  • French New Wave cinematic
Auteur Traits:

  1. Often casts Tony Leung Chiu Wai and Maggie Cheung in his films
  2. Often wears sunglasses
  3. Opening and closing credits against a red or blue backdrop
  4. Abstract, abrupt and ambiguous endings with the characters left with ambivalent feelings at the end, leaving the outcome "post-ending" to the viewer's choice and interpretation
  5. Usage of flip clocks to show the time in particular scenes
  6. Multiple narrators are frequently shown in his films with mostly the thoughts of the respective character being expressed via his/her narration
  7. Uses a lot of symbolism or visually metaphorical situations to depict the moods of his characters in various situations while they are doing apparently mundane things on-screen
  8. Dull-lit &/or color-filtered-lit rooms
  9. Frequent usage of time-lapse photography
  10. Quick freeze-frames to emphasize the specific important moments in the middle of some scenes
  11. In his films, characters are shown having a conversation mostly off-screen or with their faces reflected in mirrors (often out of focus) or other reflective surfaces, with only their voices being heard by the viewer
  12. His films are either period pieces set in the 1960s or his modern era films feature songs from the '60s in background (e.g. California Dreamin, Happy Together, etc.)
  • Films date from 1988 to present day.
  • Hong Kong second wave filmmaker.
  • Films are emotionally striking. 
  • Wong's films frequently feature protagonists who yearn for romance in the midst of a knowingly brief life and scenes that can often be described as sketchy, digressive, exhilarating, and containing vivid imagery. 
  • Does not use detailed scripts for his films.
  • Liked/inspired by the work of Ingmar Bergman.
  • Theme of time.
  • The Grandmaster made its European premiere at the 2013 Berlin Film Festival in a slightly-altered cut at 123 minutes.
  • Wong is known for producing art films focussed on mood and atmosphere, rather than following convention.
  • Structurally, Wong's films are typically fragmented and disjointed.
  • Critics have commented on the lack of plot in his films.
  • The colours are bold and saturated, the camerawork swooning, resulting in what Brunette calls his "signature visual pyrotechnics".
  • Other features of the Wong aesthetic include slow motion,off-centre framing,the obscuring of faces, rack focus, filming in the dark or rain, and elliptical editing.
  • Another trademark of Wong's cinema is his use of music and pop songs. He places great importance on this element,and Biancorosso describes it as the "essence" of his films; a key part of the "narrative machinery" that can guide the rhythm of the editing
  • Films:
    The Grandmaster (as Kar Wai Wong) 
     2012/IIIDeja Vu (Short) (as Kar Wai Wong) 
     2012Dèjà vu: The Making of (Video documentary short) (as Kar Wai Wong) 
     2011/IIMask (Short) (as Kar Wai Wong) 
     2007Hypnôse (TV Short) (as Kar Wai Wong) 
     2007Hypnôse homme (TV Short) (as Kar Wai Wong) 
     2007Midnight Poison (TV Short) (as Kar Wai Wong) 
     2007There's Only One Sun (Short) (as Kar Wai Wong) 
     2007To Each His Own Cinema (segment "I Travelled 9000 km To Give It To You", as Kar Wai Wong) 
     2007My Blueberry Nights (as Kar Wai Wong) 
     2005Capture totale (Video short) (as Kar Wai Wong) 
     2004Eros (segment "The Hand", as Kar Wai Wong) 
     20042046 (as Kar Wai Wong) 
     2002La rencontre (TV Short) (as Kar Wai Wong) 
     2002Six Days (Video short) (as Kar Wai Wong) 
     2001Dans la ville (TV Short) (as Kar Wai Wong) 
     2001The Follow (Short) (as WKW) 
     2000Hua yang de nian hua (Short) (as Kar Wai Wong) 
     2000Un matin partout dans le monde (TV Short) (as Kar Wai Wong) 
     2000In the Mood for Love (as Kar Wai Wong) 
     1998Motorola (Short) (as Kar Wai Wong) 
     1997Happy Together (as Kar Wai Wong) 
     1996wkw/tk/1996@7'55''hk.net (Short) (as Kar Wai Wong) 
     1995Fallen Angels (as Kar Wai Wong) 
     1994Ashes of Time (as Kar Wai Wong) 
     1994Chungking Express (as Kar Wai Wong) 
     1993The King of Ads, Part 2 (Documentary) (segment director) 
     1990Days of Being Wild (as Kar Wai Wong) 
     1988As Tears Go By (as Kar Wai Wong) 



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