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2 books match the query 'Wong Kar - wai'
The Sensuous Cinema of Wong Kar-wai
Film Poetics and the Aesthetic of Disturbance, Second EditionGary Bettinson
Hong Kong University Press, 2025
The widely acclaimed films of Wong Kar-wai are characterized by their sumptuous yet complex visual and sonic style. This study of Wong’s filmmaking techniques uses a poetics approach to examine how form, music, narration, characterization, genre, and other artistic elements work together to produce certain effects on audiences. Bettinson argues that Wong’s films are permeated by an aesthetic of sensuousness and “disturbance” achieved through techniques such as narrative interruptions, facial masking, opaque cuts, and other complex strategies. The effect is to jolt the viewer out of complete aesthetic absorption. Each of the chapters focuses on a single aspect of Wong’s filmmaking.
This tenth-anniversary edition of The Sensuous Cinema of Wong Kar-wai includes a substantial new afterword bringing the story of Wong’s career up to date (including reflections on the Mainland Chinese drama Blossoms Shanghai). Bettinson revisits and extends the arguments of the first edition, surveys the recent key debates on Wong’s filmmaking, and introduces fresh lines of critical investigation. The book will appeal to all who are interested in authorship and aesthetics in film studies, to scholars in Asian studies, media, and cultural studies, and to anyone with an interest in Hong Kong cinema in general, and Wong’s films in particular.
Wong Kar-wai
Peter Brunette
University of Illinois Press, 2005
Called the leading heir to the great directors of post-WWII Europe and lavished with awards, Wong Kar-wai has redefined perceptions of Hong Kong's film industry. Wong's visual brilliance and emphasis on atmosphere over action have set him apart from peers while earning him an admiring international audience. In the Mood for Love regularly appears on lists of the twenty-first century's greatest films while critics and filmgoers recognize works like Chungking Express and Happy Together as modern classics.
Peter Brunette describes the ways in which Wong's supremely haunting visual films create a new form of cinema by telling a story with stunning, suggestive visual images and audio tracks rather than character, dialogue, and plot. As he shows, Wong's early background in genre film offers fascinating insights on his more studied later works. He also delves into Wong's perennial themes of time, love, and loss and examines the political implications of his films, especially concerning the handover of former British colony Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China.