Hong Kong director Wong Kar-Wai is one of thegreatest auteursin contemporary cinema. He was born in Shanghai, China, but when he was a young boy, his parents moved to Hong Kong when the Cultural Revolution began. Wong didn’t speak Cantonese or English, making the transition difficult, but his love for cinema and the new city he was in created a lifelong devotion. Wong was one of the first mainstream Hong Kong directors outside ofmartial arts films, and it was through his work that the devotion he had for movies as an art form—as well the way he saw the world—became abundantly clear.
The cultural legacy of his films isn’t just within the film world: actress Maggie Cheung, who had gained acclaim previously for her role as Ruan Lingyu in the movieCenter Stage, wore beautiful qipaos that became popular in thefashion world. Wong bridged worlds in his films; he was unafraid to depict gay romance, the underground gangs of Hong Kong, and the thriving immigrant community of South Asians, Southeast Asians, and Westerners that live and work in the city. Combined with the unique visual style created by cinematographer Christopher Doyle, Wong’s films are hard to forget. Here are the best Wong Kar-Wai movies ranked.
7Fallen Angels
Fallen Angelsis a gritty movie full of harsh lighting, neon lights, and unique coloring. These components lend themselves to a film that ruminates on the concept of loneliness and isolation, something one wouldn’t find in mainstream cinema. The movie splits into diverging storylines loosely tied together through characters running into each other. Leon Lai, a hitman, is the subject of the first story. He associates with a woman infatuated with him, but when he finds another woman in a McDonald’s, things start to go south with his business relationship with the first woman. The second story features a mute man who finds another heartbroken girl who teaches him to change his life.
6As Tears Go By
Inspired by Martin Scorsese’s movieMean Streets,As Tears Go Byfollows the life of gangster Wah (Andy Lau) as he tries to get by. His cousin (Maggie Cheung) is sent by his aunt from the countryside for medical treatment, but this leads to a series of events where Wah falls in love with his cousin. She doesn’t know about his life as a gangster, but as he falls deeper in love, he contemplates leaving it all behind for her. Scorsese’s influence shines in the themes of this movie; the violence isn’t over-the-top, but viewers are shown the possibilities with a life outside of crime along with the fact there might not be a tomorrow.
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5Days of Being Wild
Days of Being Wildis considered the first in an unofficial trilogy, with the other two movies beingIn the Mood for Loveand2046. This film was Wong’s second film as a director, and while he hoped that this movie would be his main break into a more mainstream niche, it didn’t perform well at the box office. Leslie Cheung stars as Yuddy, a Hong Kong playboy that goes through women partners quickly. The movie focuses on two of the women he dates, Maggie Cheung and Carina Lau, but it boils down to a character study as Yuddy tries to discover the truth behind his birth mother. Wong picked a nostalgic era of time to set this movie: 1960s Hong Kong, the Hong Kong of his childhood.
Released in 2004,2046took four years to complete.2046had an all-star cast, featuring the likes of Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung, Gong Li, Zhang Ziyi, and Faye Wong. Many characters from the previous two films in the trilogy,2046andIn the Mood for Love,return. Leung plays his character fromIn the Mood for Loveas he grapples with the concept of lost love while attempting to write science-fiction novels. The women he interacts with as he returns to the scene of the previous movie slowly exposes his character for his thoughts, wishes, regrets, and desires. The movie creates a unique experience that one will be thinking about for days by using science fiction and black-and-white scenes.
3Happy Together
Leslie Cheung and Tony Leung are not happy together, but as they return to their tiny apartment and restaurants in Buenos Aires, they forget their unhappiness briefly.Happy Togetheris a film that thrives on the intimacy between these two. Even though their relationship is tumultuous, there are moments where they dance together in the back or share a taxi. In a foreign country, these two keep this dangerous dance of familiarity alive, one that bleeds into the actual colors of the films. The film shifts back and forth between being in color to black and white, literally becoming a visual cue about how the characters are feeling in the moment. When the entire movie comes together, it becomes difficult to watch.
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2Chungking Express
Chungking Expressis a refreshing take on love and misery. LikeFallen Angels,Chungking Expresssplits between two storylines. The first story is about Cop 223 (Takeshi Kaneshiro) wallowing in heartbreak after a breakup until a mystery passerby in a blond wig (Brigitte Lin) steals his heart. In the second story, a woman working at a snack store (Faye Wong) falls in love with Cop 663 (Tony Leung), who also is getting over a breakup. Wong plays with time and space in this film, choosing to speed up the footage around the characters, creating this sense of isolation and intensity.Chungking Expressis a movie for film lovers; while it is lighthearted, romantic, and comedic at times, the style is a nod to movies that inspired Wong in his youth.
1In the Mood for Love
In the Mood for Loveis a contemporary masterpiece. Wong was finally making films that appealed to the public, starting withChungking ExpressandHappy Together, so whenIn the Mood for Lovecame out, the world was waiting. In the 1960s, Maggie Cheung’s and Tony Leung’s characters discover their spouses are cheating on them, and so, out of loneliness, Cheung and Leung spend an increasing amount of time together. The movie is a slow burn, full of inaction, but this fits with the overarching story. The run time is too short and long, creating a world where you want more from it.In the Mood for Loveis also the richest Wong film when it comes to visuals, thus making it a film worthy of being called art.
