As Tears Go By.

Fallen Angels

Days of Being Wild.

My Blueberry Nights

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFWEWwE-hjc

Wong Kar-Wai trademark.

After analysing these films,  as a group we have established that Wong Kar-Wai has a particular trademark within his films. He often uses...

• The same models in his movies, particually Tony Leung  and Maggie Cheung.
• Opening and closing credits against a red or blue backdrop
• Abstract, abrupt and ambigious endings with characters left with emotional feelings at the end.
• Flip clocks to show the time in particular scenes.
• Alot of symbolisim to depict the mood of his characters.
• Dull-lit or coloured filtered lit rooms.
• Time-lapse photography.
• Quick freeze frames to emphasize particular important scenes.
• Characters shown to have conversations with themselves, eg. with their faces reflected in the mirror or reflective surfaces.
• Films are often filmed in the 60's or modern films feature songs from a 60's background.

To further our development and knowledge we have decided to research more films made by Wong Kar- Wai. These include Days of Being Wild, As Tears Go By, Fallen Angels, Eros, My blueberry nights. However, we could not get hold of some these films and decided to watch the films on youtube. Above we have attacted the you tube videos.

2046

Whilst researching Wong Kar-Wai, we found other films in the library that have been made by this director. We decided to watch the movie 2046. This film involves a writer in the 60's Hong Kong who funds his life by writing newspaper articles and bizarre sci-fi stories set in the year 2046. As he sleeps with several women, he realizes that 'all memories are traces of tears.'

He creates a passionate film by:

• using beautiful shots of twirling cigerrette smoke.
• styling the model in silk stockings and glittery sequined dressed.
• a passionate soundtrack.

In Chow's present life he lives next to the room '2046' where he develops relationships with several women whom live in that hotel room,  in his writing he creates a sci fi story that talks about his present life connecting the year 2046 and room 2046 together.Therefore, the title promises, a sci fi tale of a movie dominated by Chow's futuristic stories and love with women in the year of '2046' weaving history, love and desire.

Chungking Express.

The third film we watched was Chungking Express. Here two policeman hang out in a midnight express bar-never meeting but both sad and lonely from recent breakups.

Characters: Cop 223 is convinced his girlfriend will come back to him on his 25th birthday, but when he she doesn't, he gets drunk in bar and mets a mysterious blonde women who is a drug runner who is in trouble with her bosses after loosing alot of herion. However, Cop 633 develops a liking for the snack bar's owner cousin Faye-who develops an unhealthy obessession with him and his apartment. When Cop 633's ex visits the snack bar, she leaves Cop 633's house keys with Faye for Cop 633 to pick up. Without Cop 633's knowledge, Faye takes his house key and spends lunchtimes in his apartment-cleaning and introducing her belongings.

We came to the conclusion that this film is about people who are lonely and are slightly unhinged-prone to obessive behaviour. Cop 233 buys cans of pineapples with a May 1st use by date every day till his birthday. When his ex girlfriend doesnt visit, he eats several cans of pineapples till he is sick, whilst Cop 633 has on going conversations with objects in his apartment.

Camera and lighting:

• Chungking Express opens with a chase, which Wong Kar-Wai captures in blurred jolting snap shots with the colours of the city swirling around the scene.
• Cop 633 sits in the snack bar moping, whilst Faye gazes dreamingly at him- the characters move in slow motion whilst the crowds around them move at high speed.
• Most of the film is filmed using handheld cameras.

Happy Together.

The second film we watched was Happy Together. This film consists of a gay couple who have been in and out of a relationship several times, but this time they slowly break up-ending in an emotional heart break.

Characters: Ho flights in and out of Lai's life whenever he needs Lai's care. Whereas,  Lai is the quiet, loyal, nurturer-the sufferer who is slightly aggressive and violent towards his lover. We watch the men fall in and out of love and watch how far they can tolerate each other.

Camera and lighting:
Wong Kar-Wai uses and array of richly textured shots, he does this by:

• Using shuttering slow motion effects
• Fractured montage as Lai and Ho confront each other through a blizzard of quick cuts from every available angle and distance.
• A long take (30-40seconds), the camera holding relentlessly on Lai who weeps into the tap recorder.
• the sped-up footage of city traffic
• jump-cutting and iconography (the fixation on stationary objects, such as clocks, street signs, and statues).

Set Design: Several of the scenes are shot in Lai's bedroom- the room is a claustrophobic,dark and dingy in a run down building which instantly creates a depressing enviroment, in turn creating a specific mood. However, when Lai finally moves on with his life he visits Iguazu Falls in an attempt to 'start over'.

In the mood for love.

The first movie we watched was In the mood for love. This dramatic story involves a developing relationship between a young man and women both of whose spouses, they eventually learn are cheating on them. However, you don't see the couple cheating, instead, Wong Kar-Wai  cleverly uses the camera to suggest that they have by camera close ups of hand knocking, mustard being placed on a plate, and a quick blink of an eye entirely relevant to the pictures emotional core.

Styling: The character Ms. Cheung wears dresses with slightly exaggerated shoulders, trimmed-waisted and cowl necked, to eccentuate her own flute like neck. The character Mr Leung wears a charcoal silk shanlung suit with a selection of ties. Here we can see the styling is sexy and stylish, this exaggerates the idea of a passionate movie.

Camera and lighting: The camera is cleverly used, snatching glimpses from doorways and corners, gazing lovingly at this couple who are stranded in unhappy marriges-expressing a guilty mix of tension and desire.

Fashion Illustration and moving image.

For our term three project we were asked to create a moving image (or short film) with specific reference to illustration, animation and styling. We were put into a group of 5 people where we have all been given different rolls:

• Fahima Kanthariya: Camera + Lighting.
• Maja Howard: Editing and Sound
• Sabrina Percy: Storyboard
• Harry Paul Cunnew: Director
• Eleanor Rose Shenton: Styling and Set Design

As a group we will be assessed on a moving dvd, a final film uploaded on youtube, a portfolio of supportive reasearch and development work and a regularly updated online blog. We were also given a film director and fashion designer to inspire us to create a stylish video. The Film director we were given is Wong Kar-Wai and the fashion designer is Coco Chanel. To start the project off we were asked to watch several films created by Wong Kar-Wai including Chungking Express, In the mood for love, Happy Together.