Wong Kar-Wai is the coolest.

A few years ago, when I first turned my attention to Chinese movies, I came across a beautiful piece of work called In the Mood for Love. The director was noone I'd ever heard of, but after seeing that work of art, I was hooked on the career of a man named Wong Kar-Wai.

Of course, back then I didn't have Netflix, so coming by foreign films was sometimes a task, and knowing that the movie I had seen and fallen in love with had a prequel and a sequel, I was dying to have easy access to this phenomenal artist. Now that I have Netflix, I've been able to see Wong Kar-Wai's other movies, and have established him as one of my favorites, if not my favorite director.

Though he has a number of films I have yet to see, I will focus on Wong Kar-Wai's trilogy that oozes and sizzles with sensuality and beauty.

It's strange, really, because though the three movies I'm going to mention are part of a trilogy, they are so loosely tied together, it is sufficient to watch just one (though you'd be missing out), or watch them entirely out of order.

The first installment of the trilogy is Days of Being Wild. It is set in 1950s Hong Kong, where a womanizing young man is made aware that he is adopted, and that the woman who raised him has no intention of telling him who his real mother is. It's a simple story, and as I summarize it, I feel I could never do it any justice, but the real genius of Wong Kar-Wai isn't limited to the plot and story, but in the way he presents it all.

What really got me about this director is that he uses every tool possible to make his work appear more like an expressionist painting, rather than a movie. The entertainment factor is still there, but the cinematography, music, textures and colors are what make any of Wong Kar-Wai's movies stand out as high-class art.

In the Mood for Love is the second installment and is perhaps the most unique and beautiful of the three films in the trilogy. The character we are only shown in the last scene of the first film is suddenly the main character of the second one.

The story is of a married man and woman, who get acquainted and fall in love as they reveal that their spouses are cheating with the other's spouse. This film is unique in that it is extremely tame (there's not even a kiss in the film), yet it oozes with sensuality and desire. The film is presented much like an expressionist painting, with beautiful slow shots and gorgeous music to create the mood of love. In the Mood for Love is one of my favorite films of all time.

The third installment of this trilogy is 2046 (that is two-oh-four-six). We continue with the main character from installment number two, and this time, the story is very loose and scattered, but still good. 2046 is a room number and a year, where whoever goes there, doesn't come back. It is the story of a man searching for a past love, while filling his time with women.

Perhaps the most interesting part of this movie is the sexuality, which is not present in the other two installments. Also an interesting fact about 2046 is an interesting mix of languages and dialects. The cast is a mix of Japanese and Chinese actors. Some speaking Mandarin, some speaking Cantonese and some Japanese... not too strange right? Well, how about each of them speaking their own language with everyone? The Japanese is speaking with the Cantonese, and both understand each other... that's something I've never seen done before and find to be only one of the coolest features of the movie.

The bottom line is, Wong Kar-Wai is the coolest. Here is a video from YouTube that someone put together of In the Mood for Love with music from the film. I hope you enjoy the beauty of the images from this film as much as I do...

I've been featured... Uh-gaaaaiiiin

This is just to let all my peeps know that my latest piece for Intrepid Media, I don't want to disembowel myself... but hear me out, has been picked up as a feature. If you haven't read it already, please do, and as always, thanks!

Another Chinese movie review.

It is so hard to believe that the same guy who directed such films as Temptress Moon and Farewell, My Concubine is the same guy who wrote and directed The Promise.

Kaige Chen is a Chinese director whose name appears right up there with fellow Chinese greats as Zhang Yimou and Wong Kar Wai. His works are usually dark and serious in plot, highlighting China's rich history through interesting stories and characters. Temptress Moon is a disturbing film banned in China itself for its risque subject matter of dealing with child servants getting addicted to opium, while others use it to poison their masters. Farewell, my Concubine is the story of two orphans and friends who go through the rigid training of the Peking/Beijing opera, and remain friends through China's entire history of the twentieth century, all with a woman coming between them.

The Promise is far from the movies I mentioned above.

It is the supernatural tale of a woman told her fortune by a goddess during her childhood. Her fortune is to grow up to have all the riches in the world (the kid is starving as she is being told this)and to possess great beauty... the catch? Any man she loves, she will lose. The kid agrees to the terms, and it's mostly the pangs of hunger doing the deciding. As with all fairytale spells and fortunes, you can change the outcome, but only if the near impossible is achieved-- time going backwards. And so, the Disney show begins with slaves running on all fours against a stampede of bulls, and surreal things happening left and right that make someone not interested in such antics (someone like me) roll their eyes.

The truth is The Promise has very little to elevate itself from being a Disney magic fairytale, with only a slightly more adult feel... that being achieved only through a brief scene where Princess Qingcheng (the kid who's told she's gonna lose any man she loves, all grown up) and General Guangming (the man she loves) are getting it on. The pace of the film is that of a Disney movie... everything about it screams Disney to me, and though that's not really an issue given Disney's aim to entertain adults and kids alike with their latest productions-- and perhaps it's lost in translation-- but I'm missing the adult, quirky humor I've come to love in Disney movies.

To add to the fantasy aspect of this film, there are places in this surreal world named cheesy things like "Land of Snow" and characters named Snow Wolf. The cinematography is at times stunning, but there are sequences where it is just hokey, and choppy. The music swells at any little event, like it's the grand finale, when even the ending is hardly worthy of such passionate music. The strangest thing about this film, I find, is the cast. Two are not Chinese, and actually had to learn Mandarin Chinese in order to do the film. The actor who plays the slave Kunlun is a Korean actor, and the actor who plays General Guangming is Japanese. Just strange strange stuff, but kind of cool, really.

But no worries... there is something good about Kaige Chen making this film that is so different from his usual fare. Aside from the quality of the end product, it's good to see a director try something entirely new. The Promise is truly something new for Kaige Chen. Maybe his next new project will be better.

Intrepid Media time

It's not a feature... yet... but please do visit IntrepidMedia.com to read my latest piece, I don't want to disembowel myself... but hear me out. It is on the gallery page.

It speaks of my woes as a writer (I know, I'm such a whiner) parallel with the movie Harakiri, which I wrote about in a previous blog post, I'm back with foreign films on the brain!

Thanks for reading!

My own private office space

So, I have a little office space in the basement with a desk and all that should go on an office desk. I go down there to write and "work". But at times when I have writer's block, I just sit in the chair and stare at the wall infront of me. And it actually feels like I've worked, because as I stare, all the clutter in my head causing blockage of writing dissipates and all the useful thoughts & ideas sitting in the back of my head move to the front of it... and it feels so good.