Page 5 - Cine Appétit Issue 01
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Aniket Roy Cine Appétit
melancholy through the music of Shigeru Wong’s poetic masterpiece 2046 parallels the
Umebayashi. ideal method of a Murakami novel in its
essence in describing the art of unrequited love
Wong Kar Wai, a pivotal figure in World and pathos shaded by stunning visuals and the
Cinema and one of the leading figures of the artistry of Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, the lead
Second Wave is an inspiring artist for many actor. The film speaks about Mr.Chow (Tony
directors. The films of Wong Kar Wai act like Leung), a journalist and a writer and his
a refuge to us cinephiles whether it is the relations with women and constant failures in it.
darkness of Fallen Angels or the most poetic Setting up a fictional world, Wong presents the
2046. His range of narration often compelled film in his unique narrative focusing
by critics to be wayward, incomplete and ‘....meaning through visual images, not just
lacking intensity, still generates something words’ (Manohla Dargis). Remarkably Wong’s
untouched by others in the whole range of films demonstrate the art of dialogues in some
one-liners or two-liners that it reaches a
perfection so minutely achieved: “I once fell in
love with someone/ after a while she wasn’t there/ I
went to 2046... I thought she might be waiting for me
there/ But I couldn’t find her/ I can’t stop wondering
if she loved me or not/ Maybe her answer was like a
secret that no one else would ever know.”
Characters appear and walk past the ruined
world cinema: the striking feature of creating shores of time striking the themes of loneliness
urban poetry which often compels to be and isolation rising up to the surface. The
incomplete and disjointed. His films marked notion of time conveys an intriguing
with non-linear narratives and the energy of experience where ‘moments’ are developed in a
Hong Kong speak about growing up where the plane of poetic artistry combining the fusion of
protagonists and the audience share a lot in cultures between the East and West of Hong
common whether it is the longing for a loved Kong’s community: the Coca-Cola, Chinese
one near a waterfall, or sharing a plate of food foods, symbols of Buddhist Scriptures, a
in a fragmentary land of old restaurants. His midnight food joint of Lebanese cuisine, the
general style focusing on moods and quotes of Buddha,etc. Collaborating with long
atmosphere create a kaleidoscope of colours time friend and cinematographer Christopher
and identities. This visual style remains key to Doyle, Wong’s aesthetics developed an artistic
his work which includes the use of obscuring intensity based on certain colours to emphasise
of faces, filming in the dark of rain, slow the melodrama of the story. The constant
motion, rack focus. The aesthetic sensibilities shifting between reds and black and Doyle’s
of Wong’s films leave the audience with an experimental approach leads to a technical
array of such striking frames that mark a way perfection for commercial photography and
into eternity as the frames blend a sculpture also to the subconscious of the viewers. “With
on the fragmented walls of time.
THE EASTERLY ISSUE 01 | SEPT ‘20 |PAGE 05
