Born in Shanghai, China on July 17, 1958, Wong Kar-Wai moved to Hong Kong when he was five years-old. His mother introduced him to many different aspects of cinema ranging from the films of Hong Kong to 1960s French New Wave.
Kar-Wai wanted to stick out from the other filmmakers in the genre. He wanted to add romantic elements and dimensions to the characters that he would create. To help with the script for As Tears Go By, Kar-Wai brought in filmmaker Jeffrey Lau to come up with ideas that played into Kar-Wai’s fascination with romance and existentialism (living for ones self).
Kar-Wai decided to do something far more ambitious than his first film. The first film of an informal trilogy, and set in 1960s Hong Kong, Days of Being Wild played into the themes of loneliness, longing, and heartbreak.
To explore the ideas of melancholy in the film, Kar-Wai incorporated voice-over narration techniques featured both in French New Wave cinema and in films of American filmmaker Terrence Malick. Kar-Wai also gained a new collaborator in Australian cinematographer Christopher Doyle, who was already revered for his unique approach to photography. Their friendship would turn into one of the best director-cinematographer collaborations in modern cinema. Despite the addition of Doyle, and the support from executive producer Alan Tang, the production was not an easy one for Kar-Wai. The brief kidnapping of actress Carina Lau nearly halted the production. Further delays occurred due to Kar-Wai’s desire to have multiple takes of a love scene and his frequent deviations from the script in search of something more loose and natural.
Overview:
- romance
- existentialism
- voiceovers
- pain
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