WONG KAR WAI

Chinese International School

Y11 MYP
2010 / 2011
Why don’t we ‘get’ WKW?
Why don’t we ‘get’ WKW?
 Storylines seem to be vague
 Not uncommon for a story to change
direction suddenly
 Characters (even main characters) come
and go in a seemingly random way
 Cinematography is very stylized but
sometimes makes ‘seeing’ what happens
difficult
Why don’t we ‘get’ WKW?
 Defies audience expectations
 Makes viewers conscious they are
watching a film
 Questions the status quo in modern
moviemaking
 Makes audience active participants of
story
Characteristics
 Oddball images
 Disjointed storylines
Characteristics

 Voiceovers
 Lyrical visuals in collaboration with
Christopher Doyle
 Post-production attention to detail
Characteristics

 Subverts genre conventions

 Deliberately urges viewer to consider
beauty in the everyday
 Importance of music
 Undercrank / step-printing style
Undercrank / Step printing
 The process of slowing the frame rate of a
camera down, so that when the captured
pictures are played at the normal frame rate the
action appears to be in fast motion.
 The frames are then step-printed at a slower
speed onto the finished film, so the action is
restored to its real-time duration.
 The undercrank/step-printing method gives
these scenes a unique sense of simultaneous
animation and suspension.
Themes
 Unrequited love
 Unconventional take on being alone
 Preoccupation with time and memory
 Character individuality over narrative
causality
 Romantic love as national identity
Context
 WKW’s work is inextricably linked to recent Hong Kong
history
 British colonial rule
 Capitalist society
 Hong Kong film industry
 Artistic shift in lead up to 1997 – Chinese identity
 1987 Film Censorship Bill
 Hong Kong ‘New Wave’ – Tsui Hark, John Woo