Wong Kar-wai is a distinctive director in Hong Kong regarding his improvisational style of making films and his cinematic preference for monologues and saturated neon colours. He has won numerous film awards in Hong Kong and internationally, but his films are not successful in the local market despite his great fame[1]. His films have been interpreted in various approaches to reflect the historical and current conditions of Hong Kong. I will curate a film series of Wong’s three films, Chungking Express (1994), Fallen Angels (1995) and 2046 (2004) and focus on his depiction of the modernised city of Hong Kong. This proposal will argue that despite the developed, capitalist and cosmopolitan quality of Hong Kong, Wong has described the predicaments of the Hongkongers, especially the youth generation, and their confusion towards the future of Hong Kong and their own lives. The modernisation and economic prosperity have resulted in people’s emotional disconnection and sense of isolation, which is demonstrated as failed love affairs of his characters.
Although the political context of Hong Kong is not the central topic of this proposal, it is worth mentioning that all these three films have more or less correlation with Hong Kong’s return to mainland China in 1997. Chungking Express and Fallen Angels were made three or four years before the return, and the year of 2046 is one year before Hong Kong ceasing the fifty-year transitional period of remaining the capitalist system and the independent legal system. In Bordwell’s words, Wong’s films convey anxieties towards this return, named as “pre-1997 anxieties”[2]. The invariably failed love affairs across his characters are considered to be “allegories of impermanence”[3], indicating the unpredictability of the future administrative and political status of Hong Kong, similar to the indeterminacy of relationships. The inevitable loss of love sensed by characters at the beginning of their relationships is analogous to Hong Kong’s latent loss of its political position[4], reflected in their inability to maintain a long-lasting relationship and even their fear for love. Payne even links the unrequited love to the characters’ “sense of self” and an elevation of individualism over nationalism[5]. Nevertheless, the attribution of the “romantic frustration” or “unrequited love”[6] to the impacts of consumerism and cosmopolitanism will be discussed more intensively than these political allegories as there are hardly direct, explicit national symbols in Wong’s films while the evidence of modernisation is more densely presented.
The sense of alienation and isolation caused by capitalism and consumerism of Hong Kong is centred in Wong’s films, addressing the city’s qualities of “paradox-filled culture”, “fragmented identity” and “uncertain future”[7]. Wong expresses people’s condition “in search of love”[8] to solve and end their solitude through a number of failed love affairs, including Chow’s constant failures of maintaining an intimate relationship with the one he really loves in 2046 and the melancholy love affairs in Chungking Express and Fallen Angels. This search of love is based on their “disconnection from the city” and impacts their “global dreams”[9], implying that their misfortune of love results from lack of sense of community and their solution is to move to somewhere with even less sense of belonging. According to Cassegard, Hong Kong is cut off from countryside due to its distinctive geographical and administrative status[10], and the sense of isolation is thus innately incorporated in the environment of Hong Kong. Along with the highly modernised society, people have to undergo “proximity without reciprocity”[11], meaning that they are physically close to each other but emotionally distant. For instance, Faye in Chungking Express does housework for Cop 663 anonymously and they are physically related to the same apartment without much communication; Killer has a short relationship with Blondie in Fallen Angels, but he seems to neither know about her nor love her, which is similar to the relationship between Chow Mo-wan and Bai Ling in 2046. Additionally, Wong often uses voice-overs by the characters to convey their thoughts instead of dialogues between them, as he has said in an interview that “people are more likely to talk to themselves than to others”[12]. The paradox of “proximity without reciprocity” could be attributed to the ubiquitous consumer marketplace, which is a symbol of capitalism, as people can be quickly drawn together in the market and then dispersed. The ultimate convenience thus shortens the physical distance between people but lengthens the emotional one.
The consumerism is more related to Chungking Express and Fallen Angels, as these two are set in contemporary Hong Kong with a more commodified setting yet 2046 is set in 1960s to 1970s, but the representation of the courtesans like Bai Ling and Lulu in 2046 has implied a love relationship based on trade and exchange. In addition, the androids on the train in Chow Mo-wan’s science fiction novel are based on Lulu and Wang Jing-wen in his real life, but they become unemotional and work as waitresses in the futuristic setting. Since Wong has said that “our world is going to be a chain store”, the Hong Kong city in his films is “bursting with signs and messages selling an oppressive array of consumer products”[13], exemplified by the canned pineapple and the snack bar in Chungking Express, and the inflatable doll and all sorts of stores housebroken by He Zhiwu in Fallen Angels. Yet these consumerist signs are not isolated from people’s emotions, as He Zhiwu in Chungking Express waits for his ex-girlfriend by buying a can of pineapple every day for a month and eats all of them after he realises that she will not come back. Agent does housework for Killer covertly in Fallen Angels to express her love and care as Faye does in Chungking Express,and knows about his life through his garbage including beer cans, cigarette cases and receipts. As these products and stores manage to carry the characters’ emotions and love, it could be asserted that the intimate relationships are “negotiated through consumer goods” and are centred “more around the marketplace than the heart”[14]. Furthermore, this deep reliance on objects results in people’s solution of fetishising the space to the lack of emotional support and intimacy[15], demonstrated by Cop 663’s apartment in Chungking Express full of aeroplane models, plush toys and other objects probably related with his ex-girlfriend who is an air hostess. Considering his refusal to take her letter containing the key to his apartment, his emotional dependence on goods instead of real people thus underlines his mental isolation, which is not exclusive to him but could almost be applied to all the characters who dare not to face their broken relationships like He Zhiwu / Cop 223 in the same film and lunatic Charlie in Fallen Angels. Because of a desperate need for catharsis, this isolation is even “punctuated by bursts of violent action”[16] exemplified by the assassinations performed by Killer in Fallen Angels and Brigitte Lin in Chungking Express.
Yet this shared mental isolation of Wong’s characters and Hongkongers could be disguised by their “empty apartments”[17], which serve as a motif in Wong’s films reflecting a private yet void inner world. Cop 663 is often physically absent from his apartment, which according to Gan, disguises the lack of Other and “enables the illusion of plenitude”, compared to the former shared space which enables a real connection between people[18]. Cassegard takes the “empty apartments” as metaphors for “the emptiness of their inhabitants’ subjectivity” and “the absence of the ‘traces’ of the inhabitants’ self-expression”[19], which intensify the impotence of the characters to resist against their alienation and inability to love. This could be extended as a metaphor for the lack of self-expression of the lower-middle class of the Hong Kong people. The allegories of apartments are also used in 2046 and Fallen Angels. In 2046, although Chow has a few relationships, none of the women live in his apartment, meaning that he is always in solitude. In Fallen Angels, both Killer and Agent have access to the apartment where Killer lives in, but they never meet there. There is constantly only one person appearing in these apartments, thus the emotional solitude that the characters are enduring is displayed through their physical isolation although the apartments are not empty. Moreover, almost all the apartments across these three films are rented, which could also contribute to the theme of consumerism and intensify the sense of impermanence and instability.
The cosmopolitanism could imply both the modernisation of Hong Kong and another aspect of people’s political anxiety apart from the “pre-1997 anxieties”. In Chungking Mansion, the huge number of South Asian and African immigrants indicate the essential economic and financial status of Hong Kong as a hub for trade between East and West countries. Yet it is suggested that the rapid adaptation of these immigrants which is in sharp contrast with the lost and rejected characters may be a threat to Chinese Hong Kong people who are accustomed to being the majority[20]. Additionally, the city is strongly influenced by American and Japanese culture implied by the song “California Dreaming” in Chungking Express, the Japanese-style yakiniku (roast meat) restaurant where He Zhiwu (acted by a Japanese-Taiwanese actor, Takeshi Kaneshiro) has worked in Fallen Angels and Wang Jing-wen’s Japanese boyfriend in 2046. Specifically, Singapore is highlighted to be closely correlated with Chow Mo-wan, Bai Ling and Su Li-zhen / Black Pearl (acted by Gong Li, to be distinguished from Su Li-zhen acted by Maggie Cheung) in 2046. Whether coincidentally or not, these three highly developed capitalist countries are all yearned for by Wong’s characters, implying a lack of self-confidence of Hong Kong.
“Diaspora” is also a popular theme in Wong’s films[21] where the characters tend to exile themselves after they fail or believe to fail in love. They do not necessarily leave for another country like Bai Ling in 2046 who plans to go to Singapore since she understands Chow could never love her, but a simple move away from the previous life is enough to meet their “exotic and invisible yearnings”[22]. Brigitte Lin in Chungking Express cannot stay at one place for long due to her vocation as a drug dealer and killer, and He Zhiwu leaves the Chungking Mansion where his father worked as superintendent after his father died. This self-exile contributes to the transcultural quality of Wong’s films and serves as “a metaphor for submission to the governing laws of life”[23] which indicates that the characters are incapable of adjusting the status quo thus have to escape. The transcultural quality and the impotence of the inhabitants thus manage to shape a sketch of a modernised city that seems to offer numerous opportunities and possibilities but in fact, spares little space for people to change their life. For instance, the jobs in Chungking Express are circulated, as Cop 663’s ex-girlfriend is an air hostess, and Faye also takes the same job after she leaves the snack bar which is then in the charge of Cop 663. It could be interpreted as a coincidence out of their love, but also imply a lack of job opportunities especially in their lower-middle class. He Zhiwu in Fallen Angels returns to break into others’ stores at night after the yakiniku restaurant owner returns to Japan, showing how hard a youngster is to find a proper job in Hong Kong. Even Bai Ling goes to Singapore, her life may not be different from what she lives now, and she is still likely to work as a courtesan like Lulu did in Singapore from Chow’s words. It is demonstrated that the horizontal mobility in a modernised and capitalist society does not help improve their life but only emphasises their unsolvable predicament.
To conclude, Chungking Express, Fallen Angels and 2046 all depict an image of a modernised society of Hong Kong, which adopts consumerism and cosmopolitanism due to its capitalist system and economic development. Yet this modernisation results in the emotional isolation and the inability to love of Wong’s characters, who always endure unrequited love and mental solitude. The highly developed marketplace makes people’s material life more convenient and shortens their physical distance, but people are unable to fully communicate with others or express themselves in this fast-food-like society. In addition, Hong Kong’s cosmopolitanism is attributed to its close relations with other countries including Japan, Singapore and USA, yet the dominant status of the local Hong Kong people is thus threatened and there is little possibility of upward social mobility for the lower-middle class people and youngsters like Wong’s characters. Therefore, these three films could reflect the director’s perspective on modernisation in Hong Kong and people’s living condition under this profit-driven environment.
[1] Lisa Odham Stokes and Michael Hoover, City on Fire: Hong Kong Cinema (London; New York: Verso, 2001), 186.
[2] David Bordwell, Planet Hong Kong: Popular Cinema and the Art of Entertainment (Cambridge, MA; London: Harvard University Press, 2000), 273–74.
[3] Bordwell, 273.
[4] Carl Cassegard, “Ghosts, Angels and Repetition in the Films of Wong Kar-wai,” Film International 3, no. 4 (2005): 13, https://doi.org/10.1386/fiin.3.4.10.
[5] Robert M. Payne, “Ways of Seeing Wild: The Cinema of Wong Kar-Wai,” Jump Cut, no. 44 (Fall 2001), accessed October 11, 2019, https://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/jc44.2001/payne%20for%20site/wongkarwai1.html.
[6] Larry Gross, “Nonchalant Grace,” Sight and Sound 6, no. 9 (1996): 9.
[7] Curtis K. Tsui, “Subjective Culture and History: The Ethnographic Cinema of Wong Kar-wai,” Asian Cinema 7, no. 2 (Winter 1995): 95, https://doi.org/10.1386/ac.7.2.93_1.
[8] Bordwell, Planet Hong Kong, 274.
[9] Huang, Tsung-Yi Michelle, Walking Between Slums and Skyscrapers Illusions of Open Space in Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Shanghai (Hong Kong: University Press, 2004), 32.
[10] Cassegard, “Ghosts, Angels and Repetition in the Films of Wong Kar-wai,” 11.
[11] Ackbar Abbas, Hong Kong: Culture and the Politics of Disappearance (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1997), 54.
[12] Tony Rayns, “Poet of Time,” Sight and Sound 5, no. 9 (1995): 13.
[13] Stuart Cohn, “Fast Track,” Los Angeles View, March 1, 1996, 15.
[14] Wendy Gan, “0.01cm: Affectivity and Urban Space in Chungking Express,” Scope, November 2003, 3, accessed October 13, 2019, https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/scope/documents/2003/november-2003/gan.pdf; Gina Marchetti, “Buying American, Consuming Hong Kong: Cultural Commerce, Fantasies of Identity, and the Cinema,” in The Cinema of Hong Kong: History, Arts, Identity, ed. Poshek Fu and David Desser (New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 289, https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139167116.
[15] Gan, “0.01cm,” 1.
[16] Gross, “Nonchalant Grace,” 9.
[17] Cassegard, “Ghosts, Angels and Repetition in the Films of Wong Kar-Wai,” 17.
[18] Gan, “0.01cm,” 6.
[19] Cassegard, “Ghosts, Angels and Repetition in the Films of Wong Kar-wai,” 19.
[20] Gan, “0.01cm,” 2.
[21] Emilie Yueh-yu Yeh and Lake Wang Hu, “Transcultural Sounds: Music, Identity, and the Cinema of Wong Kar-wai,” Asian Cinema 19, no. 1 (2008): 44, https://doi.org/10.1386/ac.19.1.32_1.
[22] Richard Armstrong, “Happy Together,” Film Quarterly 59, no. 4 (2006): 3, https://doi.org/10.1525/fq.2006.59.4.3.
[23] Yeh and Hu, “Transcultural Sounds,” 44.
Bibliography
Abbas, Ackbar. Hong Kong: Culture and the Politics of Disappearance. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1997.
Armstrong, Richard. “Happy Together.” Film Quarterly 59, no. 4 (2006): 3. https://doi.org/10.1525/fq.2006.59.4.3.
Bordwell, David. Planet Hong Kong: Popular Cinema and the Art of Entertainment. Cambridge, MA; London: Harvard University Press, 2000.
Cassegard, Carl. “Ghosts, Angels and Repetition in the Films of Wong Kar-wai.” Film International 3, no. 4 (2005): 10–23. https://doi.org/10.1386/fiin.3.4.10.
Cohn, Stuart. “Fast Track.” Los Angeles View, March 1, 1996.
Gan, Wendy. “0.01cm: Affectivity and Urban Space in Chungking Express.” Scope, November 2003. Accessed October 13, 2019. https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/scope/documents/2003/november-2003/gan.pdf.
Gross, Larry. “Nonchalant Grace.” Sight and Sound 6, no. 9 (1996): 6–10.
Huang, Tsung-Yi Michelle. Walking Between Slums and Skyscrapers Illusions of Open Space in Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Shanghai. Hong Kong: University Press, 2004.
Marchetti, Gina. “Buying American, Consuming Hong Kong: Cultural Commerce, Fantasies of Identity, and the Cinema.” In The Cinema of Hong Kong: History, Arts, Identity, edited by Poshek Fu and David Desser, 289–313. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2000. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139167116.
Payne, Robert M. “Ways of Seeing Wild: The Cinema of Wong Kar-Wai.” Jump Cut, no. 44 (Fall 2001). Accessed October 11, 2019. https://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/jc44.2001/payne%20for%20site/wongkarwai1.html.
Rayns, Tony. “Poet of Time.” Sight and Sound 5, no. 9 (1995): 12–14.
Stokes, Lisa Odham, and Michael Hoover. City on Fire: Hong Kong Cinema. London; New York: Verso, 2001.
Tsui, Curtis K. “Subjective Culture and History: The Ethnographic Cinema of Wong Kar-wai.” Asian Cinema 7, no. 2 (Winter 1995): 93–124. https://doi.org/10.1386/ac.7.2.93_1.
Yeh, Emilie Yueh-yu, and Lake Wang Hu. “Transcultural Sounds: Music, Identity, and the Cinema of Wong Kar-wai.” Asian Cinema 19, no. 1 (2008): 32–46. https://doi.org/10.1386/ac.19.1.32_1.
Filmography
Chungking Express. Directed by Wong Kar-wai. Hong Kong: Jet Tone Production, 1994.
Fallen Angels. Directed by Wong Kar-wai. Hong Kong: Block 2 Pictures, 1995.
2046. Directed by Wong Kar-wai. Hong Kong: Jet Tone Production, 2004.
Maggie 叶芷灵 