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Days of Being Wild (1991, Wong Kar Wai)
Oh dear. I finally see Days of Being Wild and it makes as much of an impression as As Tears Go By or Ashes of Time did, which is to say, not much. Probably shouldn’t have watched it over four separate...
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To Each His Cinema, part 2 (2007)
Second half of shorts listing from Cannes 60th anniv. celebration (first half is here): It’s A Dream by Tsai Ming-liang Occupations by a hatchet-wielding Lars Von Trier The Gift, more weirdness by...
View ArticleMy Blueberry Nights (2007, Wong Kar-Wai)
Cowritten by Lawrence Block, longtime mystery writer once adapted by Oliver Stone for a film directed by Hal Ashby! This is his first screenwriting credit. Cinematography by Iranian Darius Khondji, who...
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2046 (Wong Kar Wai, 2004)
My pick for film of the decade, so far. cjsuttree: “The end credits of 2046 feature subtle voiceovers documenting landmark historical events: the [1967] riot; TVB’s inauguration; “50 years of...
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Eagle Shooting Heroes (1993, Jeffrey Lau)
I read about this when researching Ashes of Time and wasn’t sure I believed it existed… but whattaya know, the video store has it on DVD. And in crystal-clear quality with good subtitles, versus my...
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Ashes of Time (1994, Wong Kar-Wai)
Redux is playing in theaters, so I watched the original first to get all the plot and characters straight. I know that Plot And Characters Do Not Make The Movie, but even with crazy movies like this...
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Chungking Express (1994, Wong Kar-Wai)
Movie seems to do everything you’re not supposed to do (shoot objects instead of the people who are talking, cast a superstar actress and never show her eyes, use tons of slow-mo without speeding up...
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As Tears Go By (1988, Wong Kar-Wai)
Maggie Cheung has health problems, comes to stay with her older cousin Andy Lau, a loanshark enforcer who acts completely recklessly along with his fuckup buddy Jacky Cheung. This movie and Days of...
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The Grandmaster (2013, Wong Kar-Wai)
On one hand, I don’t think this is a perfect movie. Many of the scenes are beautiful by themselves, but I’m not sure that it comes together into a structure that makes sense. On the other hand, I’m...
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Happy Together (1997, Wong Kar-Wai)
Responsible Lai Yiu-Fai (Wong fave Tony Leung) and impulsive, promiscuous Ho Po-Wing (Ashes of Time star Leslie Cheung) took a trip to Argentina, ran out of money and got stuck there. Now they’re...
View ArticleFirst Monday in May (2016, Andrew Rossi)
Functional doc following pre-planning through opening night of a Spring 2015 China-inspired fashion show at the Met in NYC. 95% of the interest comes from the fantastic costumes on display and in...
View ArticleIn the Mood for Love (2000, Wong Kar-Wai)
Rewatched with Katy on Criterion Channel. I guess we’d last seen it before I started the blog, and there’s a particular reason we had to rewatch it now, but since I’m not going to elucidate, and since...
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The Hand (2004, Wong Kar-Wai)
I half-remembered this from watching Eros at the Landmark way back then, and the new remaster gives us a good excuse to revisit. Gong Li is a high-class call girl, whose life/career hits a rocky patch,...
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Chinese Odyssey 2002 (Jeffrey Lau)
From Sammo Hung to Jeffrey Lau this week. After Eagle Shooting Heroes, Lau made a two-part Journey to the West with Stephen Chow called Chinese Odyssey, and a few years later, this movie has… no...
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Four Half-Hour Shorts (Wong, Tsai, Gomes, Mandico)
One-Tenth of a Millimeter Apart (2021, Wong Kar-wai) Making a Wong film out of outtakes fom other Wong films. It’s a cute idea – pushes its egg-metaphor too much, but gives us some scenes that I...
View ArticleFallen Angels (1995, Wong Kar-wai)
Minimal story, all vibes – and they’re mid-90’s post-Pulp Fiction hitman-in-sunglasses fisheye-lens trip-hop vibes. Stories spun off from Chungking: crazy dude Takeshi Kaneshiro meets crazy chick...
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