Before The Grandmaster, 2046 et In The Mood for LoveWong Kar-wai was already a great filmmaker with a sharp, distinctive style. Four of his films can be rediscovered in theaters starting December 20th.
The stories in Wong Kar-wai's films sometimes seem similar: a bit of violence and a few revolvers, a traditional legacy of Hong Kong cinema, and above all, a lot of love, passion, and regret. Sadness, then, but always redeemed by humor. We sometimes forget: Wong Kar-wai's films also make us smile, as in Chungking Express (1994), when the character of Takeshi Kaneshiro, idle after being dumped by his girlfriend, starts calling all of his former conquests one after the other in the vain hope of finding someone to share his night with.
But what we remember most about Wong Kar-wai's films is his unique style. Each film has its signature: there are, of course, the slow-motion shots of In The Mood for Love (2000), but we must also rediscover the almost frame-by-frame sequences of Chungking Express, the wide-angle shots of Fallen Angels (1995) or the black and white passages of Happy Together (1997). And what would a Wong Kar-wai film be without its soundtrack? The filmmaker loves American music and old Wurlitzer jukeboxes, which he often films.
We hear Argentine tango in Happy Together or the reggae standard Things in Life by Dennis Brown, not forgetting the hit California dreamin ' that Faye Wong's character listens to on repeat in Chungking ExpressFaye plays a touching and eccentric young woman with short hair, a little crazy, who served as Jean-Pierre Jeunet's main inspiration for the character of Amélie Poulain – and we enjoy comparing the similarities today. This characteristic style also stems from a keen sense of costume and bearing, which gives Wong Kar-wai's heroes absolute class. And in particular, his favorite actor, Tony Leung, elegant in all circumstances, whether he's a uniformed policeman or a bouncer at a Buenos Aires nightclub.
These elements, taken individually, seem easily reproducible, and around the turn of the millennium, many filmmakers attempted to imitate Wong Kar-wai's style—not to mention the advertising that drew heavily upon it. It would be easy to reduce the filmmaker to his aesthetic. But style would be nothing if it weren't combined with an incredible talent for directing, paradoxically never flashy, which elevates cinema to the level of poetry. It's hard not to be moved when this young couple speeds through the Cross Harbour tunnel in Hong Kong at night on a motorcycle, while the polyphonic music of Only You Flying Pickets, at the end of the Fallen AngelsThe director has mastered the powerful art of melancholy, and when it overwhelms us, we all wish we could be sad like in a Wong Kar-wai film.
Chungking Express, The Fallen Angels, Happy Together et The hand by Wong Kar-wai
In theaters from December 20th