Wong Kar Wai movie: the best, full filmography

TOOfficer of cult movies like In The Mood for LoveHong Kong Express And 2046, Wong Kar Wai is a famous director for his unique visual stylemade of neon lights, poetic ralers and fragmented montages. Refined and melancholy, the Hongkonghese filmmaker has always been Explore themes such as love, loneliness and timeoften through melancholy characters and elliptical dialogues. Waiting to review his film on the big screen – the last dates back to 2013 – Here’s his complete filmography.

Wong Kar Wai movie: the best, full filmography

In The Mood for Love (2000)

Delicate and poignant masterpiece And summa of the director’s poetics, the film tells the story of Two neighbors, Mr. Chow (Tony Leung) and Mrs. Chan (Maggie Cheung), who discover they are betrayed by their respective spouses And they begin a frequentation that soon flows into love (Platonic).

Set in the Hong Kong of the 60s, the film moves in a space suspended between desire and renunciationwhere the non -said feelings weigh more than words. Tony Leung, the director’s fetish actor, won the award in Cannes in 2000 for the best interpretation male. The film is inspired by the short novel A meeting (also known as Intersection) by Liu Yichang

Happy Together (1997), among the best films by Wong Kar Wai

Winner of the prize for the best direction at the Cannes Film Festivalis a vibrant and painful portrait of the homosexual relationship between Ho Po-Wing (Leslie Cheung) and Lai Yiu-Fai (Tony Leung)a couple who tries to make up for a lifetime to Buenos Aires. The film follows their turbulent relationship made of passions, breaks and reconciliations on the alienating background of exile.

Wong Kar-Wai alternates moments of raw intimacy with sudden explosions of solitude, building a fragmented but deeply emotional narrative. For the film, the director is inspired by the novel The Buenos Aires Affair by Manuel Puig – The author of The kiss of the spider woman – and in the soundtrack they are present Songs of Caetano Veloso, Astor Piazzolla And Frank Zappa.

A romantic kiss – My Blueberry Nights (2007)

First (and unique) Wong film shot in Englishis a modern fairy tale starring Elizabeth (the singer Norah Jones), a girl who after a love disappointment undertakes a journey Through the United States, and here he meets equally injured characters. As Jeremy (Jude Law), owner of a night bakery with which he slowly builds a relationship Between chatter and blueberry tarts.

The director chose Norah Jones after seeing her in a video clipstruck by his naturalness. Some scenes were written directly on the set, With the actors left free to explore their characters. Rachel Weisz, Natalie Portman also in the cast And the Folksinger Cat Power.

2046 (2004)

Sequel to In The Mood for Lovethe film follows the events of Chow Mo-Wan (always Tony Leung) after the relationship with su li-zhen (shown in the previous film). Enigmatic and ambitious, 2046 mix reality and science fiction, telling Chow’s lost loves through a series of different womenfragmented reflections of a single impossible love.

Visually sumptuous, melancholy and hypnotic, 2046 And a film on not being able to go on and on the poignant beauty of what you can no longer touch. In the cast too Maggie Cheung (protagonist of In The Mood for Love) and gong there. The title of the film refers to the number of the hotel room where the protagonist staysbut also a reference to the future.

Hong Kong Express (1994)

Film divided into two stories that touch each other without ever meetingis set in one Hong Kong chaotic, night and melancholy. Protagonists are Two young policemen, both struggling with lost loves And new romantic interests that overlook suddenly.

Wong Kar-Wai signs a free, vibrant film, built with a nervous camera and poetic, capable of transforming daily gestures into acts of pure emotion. Light but profound reflection on urban solitude, Hong Kong Express was shot in less than a month while Wong Kar-Wai was working on Ashes of Time.

The Grandmaster (2013)

Last feature film (at the moment) of the Asian director, The Grandmaster And based on the life of Yip Man, martial arts master Wing Chun e Mentor of Bruce Lee. Far from being a classic biopic, The film is the story in a meditation on time, the honor, the loss and the retained desire.

At the center of the film the unsolved relationship between IP Man (Tony Leung) and the beautiful Gong Er (Zhang Ziyi), But also the fall of a world, that of traditional China swept away by war and modernity. In the soundtrack there are also two songs by Ennio Morricone Taken from Sergio Leone’s film Once upon a time in America.

AS Tears Go by (1988), Wong Kar Wai’s debut film

Directed debut of Wong, the film is a gangster movie which already reveals the visual and thematic style that will mark the whole career. At the center is Wah (ady lau), a tormented small underworld And The sudden link with the Dolce Ngor (Maggie Cheung)his cousin who came from the village. The movie mixes Urban violence, romantic melodrama and unexpressed desireswith saturated colors, Cantonese pop music and A direction that looks to Scorsese’s cinema, especially at the film Mean Streets.

Full filmography of Wong Kar Wai

Days of Being Wild (1991)

The film is a fragmented and melancholy story set in the 60s. In the center there is Yudddy (Leslie Cheung), a young drift seducer, unable to really loveobsessed with the search for one’s identity and by that of Mother who has never known.

Although AS Tears Go by it’s his debut, Days of Being Wild It is considered the first “authentic” film by Wong Kar-Wai: here all his begin to appear recurrent themes – Time, memory, unrequited love, loneliness – united with a unique visual style. First collaboration with the director of photography Christopher Doyle which will be essential to define the director’s aesthetic.

Ashes of Time (1994)

Martial arts film that renounces conventional action To immerse yourself in a reflection on time, Ashes of Time has for The protagonist Ouyang Feng (Leslie Cheung), a lone mercenary who crosses the destinies of warriors, lovers and travelers lost in the desert. The narrative is circular, almost dreamlikeand the fight becomes an expression of inner chaos. Visually sumptuous, the film transforms the traditional “Wuxia” genre into abstract poetry.

Lost angels (1995)

As in Hong Kong Expressthe film tells two stories that intertwine. On the one hand, A silent assassin (Leon Lai) wants to leave his criminal lifewhile his accomplice – who has never met with person – is secretly in love with him.

On the other, A silent boy (Takeshi Kaneshiro) lives on small thefts and meets a young woman Fragile and unpredictable. Wong Kar-Wai here explore isolation and research of love in a chaotic metropoliswith a visual style pushed to the extreme made of Shooting wide -off and hypnotic rhythm.

Blossoms Shanghai (2023)

First TV series directed by Wong Kar-Waiis an elegant and melancholy fresco set in the Shanghai of the 90s. There is in the center of the plot Mr. Bao (Hu Ge), ambitious and mysterious businessmanwhich builds his fortune between speculations, dreams and betrayals.

Between flashbacks, intertwined relationships and suspended atmospheres, the series tells the transformation of a city – and a man – who tries not to lose himself in change. Also this time the director melts melodrama and noir with his unmistakable style: Raps, soft lights, poignant music and dialogues full of non -said. In streaming on Mubi.