Sensitive to Art & its Discontents
Posted inFilm Reviews
The Wistful, Lyrical, Romantic World of Wong Kar-wai
Film at Lincoln Center's complete retrospective of Wong's filmography offers the chance to see all of his acclaimed masterpieces, as well as some of his lesser-known films.
by Ryan Swen December 1, 2020 December 1, 2020
From The Hand (2004), dir. Wong Kar-wai (all images courtesy Film at Lincoln Center)
Film at Lincoln Center's virtual retrospective World of Wong Kar-wai presents every feature film by one of our greatest directors (many of them newly restored), in the process offering the opportunity to check out some of his lesser-seen works. Titles like In the Mood for Love and Chungking Express are rightfully regarded as masterpieces, but I would assert that every single one of Wong's movies are essential — even his much-maligned US production My Blueberry Nights. Along with the canonical entries, here are some other films in the program that you should watch, both for their places in Wong's career and how they're presented here.
In 1988, Wong made his international breakthrough with the 1960s-set Days of Being Wild, tracking the lives of young people and their romantic entanglements and capricious whims. They're played by a who's who of great Hong Kong actors, including Maggie Cheung, Andy Lau, Leslie Cheung, Carina Lau, and Jacky Cheung. It is perhaps Wong's greatest achievement in illustrating the relationship between Hong Kong and its denizens, a theme that runs through most of his films. The accumulating loneliness of the city seems etched into the spaces that surround these wounded souls. Though Leslie Cheung's Yuddy is the focal point, with all the other characters falling into his orbit at one point or another, this is a true ensemble effort. The memories and piercing pain of each character seem to be absorbed into a collective, a statement about youth in this specific place and time. And it's capped off by possibly the greatest, most mysterious cameo in cinema history.
From Days of Being Wild
One of Wong's least-seen efforts is The Hand, his contribution to the 2004 triptych film Eros, (which also features segments by Steven Soderbergh and Michelangelo Antonioni). Originally running a little over 40 minutes, it's presented here in an extended cut that's just under an hour. Like In the Mood for Love, it is a 1960s romantic pas de deux, this one between Chang Chen as a novice tailor and Gong Li as his client, a high-class call girl. As the anthology's title suggests, this is his most forthrightly erotic work, and its impact is only sharpened by the story's decade-long timespan. It's a concatenation of visits, changes in appearances, and above all longings, conveyed through touch and the sensation of beautiful clothes and the things needed to craft them.
From The Grandmaster
Wong's most recent feature, The Grandmaster, was mutilated by the Weinstein Company upon its initial 2013 US release, but thankfully is available here in its original 130-minute Hong Kong cut (be sure to select this one, and not the 108-minute US version). It tells the story of revered kung fu master Ip Man (Tony Leung), Bruce Lee's teacher, but is far different from most martial arts films. Compare it to the recent tetralogy of Ip Man movies directed by Wilson Yip and starring Donnie Yen, or even to Wong's own 1994 action film Ashes of Time. Rather than invoking the nationalism of the former or the hazy memory landscape of the latter, Wong firmly situates Ip within the shifting cultural and political mores of his time. It incorporates both the encroaching Japanese invasion of China and the struggle between various kung fu schools. Crucially, Ip is not the main character for large swaths of the story. Many grandmasters, Gong Er (a magisterial Zhang Ziyi) foremost among them, form a great tapestry of skill and history that this film rests upon.
These are just three of the highlights, but all of Wong's films are must-sees, and constitute one of the most pleasurable and achingly beautiful bodies of work in cinema.
World of Wong Kar-wai runs online via Film at Lincoln Center through January 1.
Wong Kar-wai's Classic Films, Newly Restored
The Unwavering Beauty of In the Mood for Love
Your Concise New York Art Guide for December 2020
Beholding and Curating with Care
Curator La Tanya S. Autry shares a set of crucial questions she considers when curating images of anti-Black violence.
by La Tanya S. Autry
Paintings that Honor the Privacy of Grief
Crys Yin's subject is grief, which, for all that takes place in public, is largely a private matter.
The National Portrait Gallery Announces New Online Programs to Kick Off 2022
The first lecture is on the relationship between early portrait photography and diverse notions of US identity during the Gilded Age. Register to attend on January 25.
Using Clay to Concretize the Psychological State of Being Wounded
With her clay relief sculptures, Brie Ruais probes the exit wound and its deep psychological implications.
by Daniel Larkin
A Historical Art of Dissent for the Digital Age
In Doomscrolling, Rob Swainston and Zorawar Sidhu assume the task Walter Benjamin set for the articulation of history — to "seize hold of the past as it flashes up at a moment of danger."
by Faye Hirsch
Stanford Arts Presents a Virtual Conversation With Catherine Opie and Rebecca Solnit
Part of the university's Artists on the Future series pairing renowned artists with cultural thought leaders, this online event is free and open to the public.
The Contrast Between Institutional and Personal Remembrances of Martin Luther King
When we honor King publicly, as many in the art circle did on Monday, we use these moments to do more than just remember and pay tribute.
by Seph Rodney
Researchers Find Evidence Human Beings Are Way Older Than We Thought
A study that reexamined Homo sapiens fossils found our species is 30,000 years older than previously believed.
by Hakim Bishara
Jane Freilicher and Thomas Nozkowski: True Fictions
Curated by Eric Brown, this exhibition at the Milton Resnick and Pat Passlof Foundation in New York is on view through February 26.
Saying Maybe to the Yes Men
As much as I appreciate the collective's culture jamming initiatives, I don't know that their putative premise ever bears meaningful fruit.
Digital Exhibition Examines the Darker Side of Bananas
The banana's dominance and ubiquity has had serious and far-reaching implications for the region, engendering exploitative labor systems, climate change, and migration.
by Lauren Moya Ford
The Forgotten Story of Modern Art's Great Jewish Collectors
Charles Dellheim's study tells the tale of a small group of Jewish art dealers and collectors who played a key role in the changing art world of the 19th and 20th centuries.
by Naomi Polonsky
Tagged: Film at Lincoln Center, New York, Reviews, Wong Kar-wai
Ryan Swen
Ryan Swen is a freelance film critic and a cinema and media studies MA candidate at the University of Southern California. He co-hosts the podcast Catalyst...	More by Ryan Swen
How Does the FBI Art Crime Team Operate?
From Cattelan's Golden Toilet to Bored Apes, We Think This Art Should Be on Succession
The Forgotten Story of Modern Art's Great Jewish Collectors
Hyperallergic is a forum for serious, playful, and radical thinking about art in the world today. Founded in 2009, Hyperallergic is headquartered in Brooklyn, New York.
© 2022 Hyperallergic. Proudly powered by Newspack by Automattic	Privacy Policy