Wong Kar Wai

One of the most visually entrancing filmmakers working today, Wong Kar-Wai is a man who creates films filled with dazzling images and characters with a sense of romanticism. Known for his broad ideas and unconventional techniques in the realm of filmmaking, he is an individual that refuses to play by the rules. He brings both Asian sensibility and French New Wave cinematic techniques to each of his stories. His mother introduced him to many different aspects of cinema ranging from the films of Hong Kong to 1960s French New Wave. Tang hired Kar-Wai to write scripts for various movies ranging from romantic-comedies to action films. Though they scripts were successful, and helped him to get a lot of work, it was clear that Kar-Wai wanted something more. Fortunately, it was Tang who ultimately gave Kar-Wai the chance to helm his first feature film. He wanted to add romantic elements and dimensions to the characters that he would create. To help with the script for As Tears Go By, Kar-Wai brought in filmmaker Jeffrey Lau to come up with ideas that played into Kar-Wai’s fascination with romance and living for ones self. The film not only launched Kar-Wai’s career but also gave his actors a chance to branch out. Established set designer, and jack-of-all-trades, William Chang created dazzling color palettes and aided with the editing of the film. One thing that also helped Kar-Wai stand out amongst his contemporaries was his approach to music. He found ways to use pop music, such as a cover of Berlin’s Take My Breath Away from the 1986 Tony Scott film Top Gun, to as the centerpiece of the romance between Wah and Ngor. 

Kar-Wai decided to do something far more ambitious than his first film. The first film of an informal trilogy, and set in 1960s Hong Kong, Days of Being Wild played into the themes of loneliness, longing, and heartbreak. In the film a cruel and wandering playboy, York (Leslie Cheung), seduces two different women who both become victims of his cruelty and indifference. Each of the three main characters’ embark on different emotional journeys over the course of the film, including the playboy’s quest to find his biological mother in the Philippines. To explore the ideas of melancholy in the film, Kar-Wai incorporated voice-over narration techniques featured both in French New Wave cinema and in films of American filmmaker Terrence Malick. Kar-Wai also gained a new collaborator in Australian cinematographer Christopher Doyle, who was already known for his unique approach to photography. Their friendship would turn into one of the best director-cinematographer collaborations in modern cinema. Despite the addition of Doyle, and the support from executive producer Alan Tang, the production was not an easy one for Kar-Wai. The brief kidnapping of actress Carina Lau nearly halted the production. Further delays occurred due to Kar-Wai’s desire to have multiple takes of a love scene and his frequent deviations from the script in search of something more loose and natural.

his films will probably include 
- romanticism 
- heart break
- living the way they want to live life
- voiceovers
- time
- pain
- suffering of love
- existentialism