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Wong Kar Wai likes to break film-making rules. At film school you learn the dictum "show, don’t tell." Kar Wai does the opposite. He uses voice-overs and quotations to tell the story rather than showing it. He fractures the storyline so that it is hard to follow. Style becomes more dominant than substance.

The film is suffused with a brooding mood, impregnated with angst and the melancholy of love rejected. This is now considered Wong Kar Wai’s signature style. It has been imitated so much by younger film makers that it has become a cliché.

The cinematography is luscious and ravishing. Film critic Adrian Sim makes the following comments about the cinematographic techniques:

"By dividing the screen into half and choosing to depict action on one half, Wong Kar Wai has created a sense of visual unrest and claustrophobia. In so doing, the shots look visually arresting because of the more pronounced depth of field. He has also chosen to shoot about 90% of the film in interiors (i.e., the Oriental Hotel and train) creating an insular world that the lovelorn characters live in. Interestingly, the only exteriors shown are the barren alleys, the Computer Generated Imagery (CGI)-rendered futuristic Hong Kong skyline and black and white footage of civil unrest to present the contexts of his affairs. Wong Kar Wai has also deliberately cut away a lot of "look room" (that comfortable looking space) from the characters, such that the characters often appear talking to someone off screen, thus evoking the characters' dissociative psyche. Another Wong Kar Wai trademark to stir visual interest is the use of over-the-shoulder shots to cut away facial features of the person in the background (remember the obstructive use of billowing curtains to block characters' faces in Ashes of Time?). In a way, he attempts to dis-map the psychological domain of the often self-centred and deceptive characters (e.g., Tony Leung's Mr. Chow) rendering an impossibility in totally understanding them. The numerous mirror shots furthers the theme of claustrophobia and emotional entrapment. This utilizing of mirrors is quite predominant in the trilogy of films. Also interesting is the choice of a nonlinear narrative in tandem with Tony Leung's fragmented memories of his various beaus."

Overall, I like the film. The only part I didn't quite like is the sudden change in heart of Faye Wong's father when he says he will attend her wedding in Japan, adding that "all I wanted was for her to be happy." It does not ring true!

Article Author: Ken Lyen

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