First Love

[moshi moshi]

> Yes, I have mixed feelings about the Doyle and WKW collaboration.
> For a while, I couldn't work out what it was that irritated
> me,particularly with Fallen Angel, but now I've come to think that it's
> WKW's use of sound in conjunction with the photography.  The use of pop
> music, particularly songs with lyrics, reminds me too much of MTV (again,
> I'm not sure who's borrowing from who).  Perhaps he's being ironic, but
> playing with pop culture in films can be  a bit like 'playing with fire'
> and I feel that WKW and his ideas could get mistaken for the object of
> his critique. They'll date quickly too.
> 
> If anyone would care to come to WKW's defence, I'd be very interested.
> I'm really not clear on how I feel about his films.  The more I see, the
> more uncomfortable about them I become.  

I'm pretty biased regarding this topic myself, Wong Kar-Wai being one of
my favorite directors of the moment, but I feel some points need
clarification.

1) On Christopher Doyle. A lot of the 'gimmicks' he's using, if we are to
believe Wong, are in fact continuity tricks added in post-production
under his (Wong's) supervision. Wong said that, for example if there was
some discontinuity in colour in his movies, he would switch to b&w for a
few shots, if the movement wasn't smooth enough, he'd use slow motion and
freeze frame, etc. etc. 
As far as 'gimmicks' go, I usually don't like them either (see my comments
on Sada) but I here think they fit with mood of Wong's films. Yes, they
are usually indeed very 'young' and hip, and some editing and visual
techniques slightly out of the ordinary can only contribute to that
feeling. I don't think there's enough happening in a Wong movie for it to
warrant to be deemed "MTVed"
Also, I don't know if it's Doyle's style that is tamed when he does movies
like Temptress Moon (the onlymovie except for Wong's I watched knowing
Doyle was the DOP) or if it's Wong's style that takes over Doyle's in the
post-production process. There is an interesting inerview with Mr. Doyle
in the latest issue of Screen Machine where he talks a little bit about
that.

2) On the use of pop culture. Comparison is no redemption but it would be
good to notice that the use of music in Wong's films isn't imposed by the
need to sell a soundtrack like in most Hollywoodian movies (and if I'm not
mistaken the trend is starting to spread) nowadays. As far as Wong says,
he's most often just using the music out of a handful of cds that are
lying around, like in ChungKing Express' the Mamas and the Papas or
Happy Together's Astor Piazzola. I don't think lyrics automatically make
film music bad. It might distract the viewer's attention if it is intended
to be a conveyor of atmosphere but once again, a lot of the lyric-music is
used for a purpose (the repetition of California Dreaming, the
song-message of Fallen Angels). I can only recall the Massive Attack track
of Fallen Angels and some cantopop in As Tears Go By (that I really
didn't like and put apart in Wong's filmography) but please correct me if
I'm wrong.

3) On product placement. That's probably the only thing I don't like in
Wong's movies and something I haven't seen discussed anywhere: the
in-your-face product placement. Next to it, Hollywood seems almost
subtle. The first example that comes to mind is the McDonald's ad in
Fallen Angels...But from ChungKing's Garfield, Corona, etc., there might
only be Ashes of Time that is exempt of it for obvious reasons. Does
anyone have more information on this topic?

Sorry for intruding with a non-Japanese topic...

Olivier Petitpas

PS: I've recently watched Jeffrey Lau's Out of the Dark where Karen Mok's
character, just like in Wong's Fallen Angels, sports a blonde wig and has
been dumped by a certain "Johnny"... Is there any story behind that?

PPS: Could Mark Schilling please contact me? I'm looking for information
on his Encyclopedia of Japanese Pop Culture...