Wong Kar Wai
Early Life
Kar Wai Wong, known as Wong Kar Wai in the United States, was born in Shanghai, China on July 17th 1956.
When he was only 5, he left Shanghai and traveled with his mother to Hong Kong.
Dropped out of art school and never attended a film school.
Spent almost a decade writing scripts before making a movie.
Made his first full length movie As Tears Go By in 1988.
His first real hit was Days of Being Wild which is also considered to be the first of an informal trilogy that later includes In the Mood for Love and 2046.
--Duo Duo 23:44, 25 February 2012 (UTC)
Filmography
1988 As Tears Go By: Wong Kar Wai's first film; a love story.
1990 Days of Being Wild: The movie that shot Wong Kar Wai into international popularity. This is the first movie in Wong's unofficial trilogy. The movie is about a man who finds out the he is adopted but can't find his mother because his adopted mother won't tell him. He develops a relationship with two very different women and doesn't have the emotional capability of choosing between the two which ultimately leads to heartbreak all around.
1994 Chungking Express: A movie about two seperate cops and the relationships they have with somewhat nefarious women. This film brought Wong Kar Wai into the American spotlight when director Quentin Tarantino watched it and became a major fan and promoter of Wong.
1994 Ashes of Time: A movie about a swordsman who goes to the desert to seek out men to fulfill his contract killings.
1995 Fallen Angels: A movie about a hitman and his attempt to deal with his less murderous emotions.
1997 Happy Together: This is a movie about a Chinese couple in Argentina and the struggles the two men deal with.
2000 In the Mood for Love: Considered the second movie in the unofficial trilogy, In the Mood for Love is a movie about a man and woman who find out their spouses are cheating with each other and form a relationship around this awkward bond. The movie deals with struggling against society and against emotion.
2004 2046: Made at the same time as In the Mood for Love, 2046 is about a man seeking the woman he loves in another time and dealing with other relationships as he seeks to fill the space she left. This movie is considered to be the final movie in the unofficial trilogy.
2007 My Blueberry Nights: Wong's only American production, My Blueberry Nights is about a disillusioned young woman who travels seeking love and the characters she meets along the way.
2012 The Grandmasters (in post production)
--Duo Duo 23:44, 25 February 2012 (UTC)
Style
Wong is known for his signature art house films
Time: Wong tends to kind of mess with time in his movies. He rarely uses a traditional story format but instead prefers to move forward, backward, or in both directs within a film. His films are therefore typically not chronological.
Romance: Wong's unofficial trilogy focuses on the different relationship stages that his characters go through. He addresses many complicated relationships and the emotional issues that accompany them.
Being “stuck”: This is a central theme of most of his movies; the characters are stuck in their place and try as they might they cannot seem to overcome it.
Pre-Production: Wong typically doesn't believe in using pre-production as he believes that the raw material from a first take is what makes a movie. He likes his actors/actresses to become the character.
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Editing: To Wong, editing is almost like making the movie again.
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Actors/Actresses:Wong is known for his tendency to use the same actors and actresses repeatedly throughout his films. His two favorite actors are Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung who have both appeared in a majority of his films. He says that he favors this method because of his non-traditional filming methods.
Non-Traditional Filming method:Wong Kar Wai, having never gone to film school, is known for a unique style in film-making. Firstly, he write all of his scripts, but he doesn't do a full dialogue, he leaves a lot of the dialogue up the actors. This is part of the reason he uses repeat actors because they know how to handle Wong's expectation that they become their characters. He also doesn't storyboard unless he absolutely has to and prefers to let the movie go with the flow that it wants to.
--Duo Duo 23:50, 25 February 2012 (UTC)
Awards
1991 Hong Kong Film Awards, Best Director (Days of Being Wild)
1995 Hong Kong Film Awards, Best Director (Chungking Express)
1997 Cannes Film Festival, Best Director (Happy Together)[4]
2000 European Film Awards, Screen International Award (In the Mood for Love)
2001 César Award, Best Foreign Film (In the Mood for Love)
2004 European Film Awards, Screen International Award (2046)
--Duo Duo 23:54, 25 February 2012 (UTC)
Bibliography
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0939182/bio
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wong_Kar-wai
http://www.avclub.com/articles/wong-karwai,13700/
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,501041004-702208,00.html
http://mubi.com/cast_members/1700
http://www.filmmisery.com/2011/12/wong-kar-wai-marathon-the-informal-trilogy/10596/
--Duo Duo 23:54, 25 February 2012 (UTC)
References
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