Show the love for Wong Kar-Wai!

Well come on, do as Kong says and show the love for the man!

Wong Kar-Wai isn't feeling the love yet people! Come on; get to it, and show the man some props.

Sorry man, I've never seen any of his movies.

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You need to! Check out Chungking Express, and In the Mood For Love first then progress to others.

i saw chungking express and happy together... or maybe it was fallen angels... anyway, chungking express was quite good. even made my top five for that year. fallen angels, on the other hand, didnt do a thing for me. i just found it obnoxious and boring at random intervals throughout. and the song they played over and over got old pretty fast. he did that with another song in chungking express, but it was one that i actually liked [though after watching it, cant say i really had the stomach to listen to it for a while, if you catch my driftwood.]

in other words... my love is waning, waning, waning, i'll let you know what i think if i get a chance to see 'in the mood for love' though. maybe that will get me back in the mood to check out more of his movies?

Wong Kar-Wai does tend to repeat songs in some films, but he doesn't do it in In the Mood For Love (at least Kong doesn't remember it).

Happy Together is the film about the gay couple in Argentina. It is Kong's favorite Kar-Wai film (that he has seen at least). Kong hasn't seen Fallen Angels yet.

ok, yeah, it must have been 'fallen angels' that i saw then, cuz i dont remember no gay couple [though come to think of it, i dont remember much at all of that movie now, even though i saw it last summer]. anyway i saw it right after watching 'chungking express', so was expecting something from it. but it just ended up seeming like a lesser chungking express. most of the cool, ugly stylistic elements were there but everything else i think was just kind of bland.

i mix it up with happy together because that's the other one they have at my videostore. i'll check it out one of these days, if i dont get to in the mood for love first.

Kong highly reccomends both of those films, but the subject matter in Happy Together is not for everyone.

well that's good cuz i'm not everyone.

Kong is a wanker. Bullet said so.

Meanwhile, a great example of a sole song being used again and again, and to wonderful effect, is that of Monsieur Hire by Patrice Leconte. Repetitive, haunting, and obsessive in just the right, tragic way.

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I've only seen In the Mood for Love. I thought it was beautifully done and I loved the actor and actress in it also. He proved you can make a movie about love and desire without resorting to nudity and cheap thrills (like "Unfaithful"). The only thing I wish he would have done differently is the ending. I don't want to spoil it for linespalsy, so I'm not going to elaborate.

Really? Kong found that final scene to be heartbreaking, and haunting.

Your right...it was hearbreaking...that's just it.
I don't want to spoil it for anyone...but I wish he would have ran into her at the apartment in that one scene towards the end. I know it's sounds bad, but I just wish it had a warm a fuzzy ending, that's all. Or maybe bittersweet were they meet again in old age.

which one is the one when the guy massarges the dead pig. that was funny. very cool opening i seem to remember. but maybe i dreamt it.

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In the Mood for Love (2000) and Fallen Angels (1995) did nothing for me, I'm afraid.

Fallen Angels had its energy, of course, and that was very appealing, but I felt nothing for any of the characters and eventually just stopped caring altogether. In the Mood for Love slowly fell into a hole for me and eventually I just wanted it to finish so I could get back to my life.

However, I loved Happy Together (1997) and for my money, it's Kar-Wai's best.

I still need to see his others, of course, but still.

i bought chungking express this last christmas season, as i have been on a recent must see asian cinema jag for the last six or seven months. (blame audition. i am just now starting to move into non-japanese territory too.) i didn't actually sit down and watch it though (i have so many movies too watch...sorry fassbinder collection dad bought me for christmas....) till just this monday. man...this was so incredible. i can't believe i waited this long. i did kind of have an idea as to what i was getting into as i saw the film his cinematogropher made - away with words (blame tadanobu asano ) . while chungking was superior to away with words (it was still a pretty interesting film...i would reccommend) it definitely had some of the look of it. which is understandable as away with words was made by wai's often cinematogropher chris cunningham. .... now that i have forgotten my point i'll just finish by saying chungking express is extradonary, and definitely has just inspired my hunger to see more wai stuff....

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Just saw Ashes of Time. Quite disappointing. Even the few action sequences were poorly shot.

In The Mood Of Love was spoilt by the ending, which made no sense at all.

Chungking Express' second story was a let-down. California Dreaming was played too many times.

Have you seen Days Of Being Wild? It's my favourite Wong Kar Wai film.

To rate Wong's movies:

Days of Being Wild
In The Mood For Love
2046
Chungking Express
Fallen Angels
Ashes of Time

Keep in mind the post you're responding to is almost a decade old. I was young and foolish (or maybe now I'm old and foolish, because Fallen Angels and 2046 are my favorites). I've seen all of his movies now, most of them multiple times. I saw Ashes of Time (redux) and 2046 on the big screen (the latter I saw with my dad). Days of Being Wild is good while my least favorite is probably Happy Together, but those are the only two that I think I've only seen once and would need to watch again. Which version of Ashes of Time did you see?

He didn't direct, but wrote a romantic comedy called Final Victory (1987) that you might like better.

I saw the redux. The original's not easy to find. I'm not a Wong Kar Wai fan but I like his visual style. However, I'm not planning to watch any more of his films for the time being... Its strange that you used to loathe Fallen Angels and then adore it now. Someone used to sum up Wong's films aptly - "fancy ribbons wrapping up nothingness".

I probably was being too harsh in those old posts, I think my feeling was probably something closer to indifference than hate.

Not that I agree it applies to Wong or Christopher Doyle, or that there is a definite line between form and content, but those questions aside, why is calling someone an "empty" stylist automatically derogatory when talking about cinema (or any visual art for that matter)?