We love what we can't have. – Wong Kar Wai.

Since the agreement concerning handing Hong Kong, an ex-British colony, back to China in 1984, its population has lived in uncertainty – caught between two identities. This mood of alienation and isolation, has permeated into its cinema. While others before dealt with it cynically, it was Wong Kar Wai, who brought a modern, introspective approach to these questions.

And yet, Wai rarely talks politics, or history in his films. He tells personal, passionate and painful stories of individuals caught in a time wrap - only, with the heightened awareness that personal history is always interlinked with political history. He makes cinema that excludes while it includes, that is singular and yet about the mass of humanity.

One can blame Wai to be living in the past, as he recreates the Hong Kong of the 1960s in many of his films. The accusations are further heightened, considering that his only sci-fi film, 2046, though set in the future, is actually about the past. Yet, he captures urban angst and alienation with a detached compassion that grows more relevant everyday.   

Wai gives colours, sights and sounds to feelings (In The Mood For Love). He visualizes emotion without emotionalizing visuals (Days of Being Wild). He brings a painter’s aesthetics, a painter with the power of sound (Chungking Express). He evokes moods, gasps and sighs like a magician with the audience at his beck and call (Happy Together, Fallen Angels). He captures and forever freezes time into his frames (Days of Being Wild).

After a graphic design diploma from the Hong Kong Polytechnic School in 1980, Wai began his career as a television production assistant. He then began scripting for TV and later migrated to films. In 1988 he made ‘As Tears Go By’, using a unique visual aesthetics that awed audiences at the Cannes Film Festival. His next film ‘Days of Being Wild’ won him five Hong Kong Film Awards. ‘Ashes of Time’ a martial arts movie, broke conventions of its genre. It was during a post production break of this film, that he made ‘Chungking Express’ – an instant cult hit that exposed the world to the true genius of an auteur. His next two films, ‘Fallen Angels’ and ‘Happy Together’ received tremendous critical acclaim, with the latter winning him the best Director Award at the Cannes Film Festival. The 2000 film ‘In The Mood For Love’ was another watershed in Wai’s life, winning many awards worldwide, including two at Cannes.

Wai’s latest is an English film ‘My Blueberry Nights’ which opened and received a rousing reception at the Cannes film festival 2007. The film rides on the heavy star cast of Jude Law, Natalie Portman, and the singer Norah Jones in her first film appearance.

Fans hail Wong Kar Wai as a master of mood, melancholy and atmosphere; his critics accuse him of spending too much time in the past; his producers are wary of his perfectionist excesses and the time he takes to finish his films… while Wai, moves on - lending nostalgia to unrequited love, hearing the voice of silences and capturing moments that often last forever.

© Palador Pictures Pvt. Ltd., 2008