‘Journey to the Far East’ Cycle — Part 2

In this second part of our journey through the cinema of the Far East, we turn to the films of Wong Kar Wai (WKW), who, having been born in Shanghai, grew up in Hong Kong, where he shot much of his work—one of the most stimulating bodies of work that contemporary cinema has offered us, which emerged in the late 1980s. It was no coincidence that Film Comment wrote that “after Godard, [WKW is] what cinema could be, should be, and finally is”. Every film he makes, or even the restoration of his works under his supervision that he presented a few years ago, is an event. A feast for the eyes and the senses. The series he directed for television became a phenomenon of incalculable magnitude in China. 

On this journey, we will see all the restored films that have been re-released worldwide under the title THE WORLD OF WKW: the first, As Tears Go By (1988), a Scorsese-style gangster film set on the streets of Hong Kong, which caused a sensation at Cannes thanks to the uniqueness of its impressionistic settings and profane romanticism; a year later, Days of Being Wild, a tale of insatiable romantic desire, in which a group of young people share nights and cigarettes, premiered at a legendary screening at the Berlin Film Festival; here, we first became acquainted with him through Chungking Express, already in the mid-90s, WKW’s first major international success (and which meant to 90s film buffs what Godard had meant to those of the 60s) and it was a love that lasted; and which continued with Fallen Angels (1995), which had originally been conceived as a possible third story in the Chungking series; Happy Together (1997), winner of the Best Director Award at Cannes, the story of two lovers who set off for Buenos Aires and there attempt to rebuild their turbulent relationship; In the Mood for Love (2000), a love story between neighbours who discover they have been betrayed, was immediately elevated to the status of a masterpiece; 2046, a sequel or “shadow film”, as Vasco Câmara called it in Público, to In the Mood for Love (it was the number of the hotel room where the lovers met), with Chow (Tony Leung) trying to recover from Su Li’s abandonment, seeking her in the women he meets and whom he, in turn, goes on to abandon. — Medeia Filmes