One name that is pretty well known yet at the same time isn’t very recognized when it comes to Asian Directors is Wong Kar Wai. This Chinese born Hong Kong director, screenwriter and producer possesses the art or power of creating the most illusive and dreamlike films ever. There is a sense of nostalgia or Déjà vu in every scene, that makes the film so placid.
The main essence of these movies is the timelessness. The characters seem to exist in the state of perpetuity. They don’t move according to real time. Physically yes sure time is aging them, but that’s just a way of blurring themselves out. They seem to be lost or stuck in the past which is why the present is merely the time that has passed since. This is also evident in the voice overs done by the actors, where they share their thoughts, ideas. But these thoughts and ideas are also just reflections of the past, where they recount past events in their life and share their views of it.
In this sense, the hazy, somewhat hypnotic streets of Hong Kong, represent the feeling of nostalgia despite the projection of it being real time. This is because, in my view, we are seeing the scenes through the eyes of the character, which as mentioned before, is lost in the past. This melancholic feeling is shown through the misty almost dreamlike state of the person’s retrospection.
One of my first Wong Kar Wai films was Fallen Angels. Simply attracted by its poster, I went into the movie knowing little to nothing about what to expect. Needless to say, I was speechless. To comprehend Wong kar wai, you first need to understand the theme, which is yearning. The films are retrospective in nature, where the character is looking back in the past, desperately wanting to revive those memories. There is a sense of regret in the way things have turned out and the characters are unable to move past it, inescapably lost.
This inability to come out of the past and grow with time is what creates the timelessness dimension. Time only existed until the fateful event occurs. After that, you simply passed through time, not truly lived in it. While being able to empathize with the characters is certainly an applaudable ability, many viewers of Wong Kar Wai might not be able to understand what is actually happening. It happened to me in Fallen Angels. But one thing the film definitely brought out in me was the feeling of getting lost.
Lost in the past, lost in the streets, lost in a crowd, lost in myself — any or all of this. To be able to feel the emotions without fully comprehending the art is probably the greatest aspects of art, and it’s safe to say that Wong Kar Wai definitely achieved it.