Wong Kar-Wai's only English movie?
Is this Wong Kar-Wai's only English movie? I have been dying to see this one... saw its promos on HBO many times but haven't really got a chance to catch this one.
shareIs this Wong Kar-Wai's only English movie? I have been dying to see this one... saw its promos on HBO many times but haven't really got a chance to catch this one.
shareYes. It is. And it's horrible. I don't think his style of writing translates well in English. What's poetic/lyrical in his native language is contrived/pretentious in English.
shareWhat about 2046? And, some other movies listed on his page under 'Director' - http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0939182/?ref_=tt_ov_dr??
shareWong Kar-wai has made a couple of English-language commercials, most notably an extended 10 minute short film for BMW called The Follow, starring Clive Owen, Forest Whitaker, Adriana Lima and Mickey Rourke. Of all his work it bears the strongest resemblance to My Blueberry Nights in its Americana feel and road-trip plot (it was made earlier, back in 2001). I avoided seeing it for years thinking it would just be a typical commercial but eventually I saw it after a friend recommended it to me. It's actually a beautiful film, which I like a bit better than My Blueberry Nights (although I feel that is also a good movie).
He also made the music video for DJ Shadow's song Six Days. As a music video it is wordless, but the song includes (sampled) English language vocals and there is a Bruce Lee quote (written in English) that appears on screen during the video.
2046 is one of Wong Kar-wai's Chinese films, although like other WKW works it is set in several regions of Asia and it includes different dialects of Chinese and also some Japanese characters with Japanese dialogue. But it is not an English-language movie. Bear in mind that title is not even in English. The whole world uses Arabic numerals (i.e. 1, 2, 3) and western calendar. China has its own numbering system and its own ancient calendar but the latter is totally obsolete now. So Chinese or westerners would use the same numerals to designate the same year.
Wong Kar-wai does make use of English language songs in his Chinese films, including in 2046 (which, like In the Mood for Love, includes Nat King Cole songs)- this is of course very common due to the global dominance of English, especially in Hong Kong, where English was one of the official languages throughout the period of British colonialism that only ended in 1997, well into WKW's career. Like most filmmakers in Hong Kong, Wong is fluent in English and thus also chose the English-language titles of his films (which often differ significantly from the Chinese titles, and reference English pop songs).
Although not in English, WKW did make one other film with a significant amount of dialogue (even if still a minority of the film) in a language besides Chinese. Happy Together is set mostly in Argentina and some of the dialogue is in Spanish. Still, the main characters are Chinese and mostly speak to each other in Cantonese and/or Mandarin. Occasionally Chinese characters in WKW films will also use an English phrase or two- the way people do throughout the world.
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I don't think his style of writing translates well in English. What's poetic/lyrical in his native language is contrived/pretentious in English.