text is an audio translation of Quentin's video tour explaining "Chungking Express", produced by Iris Translation Group.
Author: Quentin Tarantino
Translation: pseudohipster
Proofreading: Hero Xu Fatty
Hello everyone, welcome to Wong Kar-wai's "Chungking Express". In my mind, Wong Kar-wai is one of the most exciting filmmakers to have appeared since I entered the industry.
His movies have an exciting quality - of course Hong Kong movies can bring a different kind of excitement to American movies. But his movies are a little different.
The influence of Godardian style can be seen in Wong Kar-wai's films, which is rare in the works of most other Hong Kong filmmakers, such as John Woo, Jackie Chan, etc. This style makes Wong Kar-Wai's films unique. I'm fascinated by his work.
I saw "Chungking Express" while working on "Pulp Fiction." I was in Stockholm for a film festival. Because I watched Wong Kar-Wai's "Days of Being Wild" and liked it very much, so when I heard that his new movie was about to be released, I really wanted to see it. That's where I saw it.
"Days of Being Wild"
Then... ah, I was simply stunned and fell in love with it completely. I like watching romance movies. The film has a wonderful romantic comedy feel to it, but is also set against the crazy and confusing backdrop of Hong Kong.
Of course, although the Hong Kong movies seen in the United States seem very unruly, when you watch them in Hong Kong, this feeling is less. Probably the local life is like that, with that kind of rhythm. This will feel amazing.
Without further ado, the movie will start soon. I'll come back and tell some anecdotes about the film next, about Wong Kar-Wai and some of the actors in the film. If this one suits your taste, then I will recommend a few more that you might also like. So, see you after the main film, please enjoy "Chungking Express".
I'm back. I promised you at the beginning that I was going to tell you some details about the movie.
Wong Kar-Wai made "Chungking Express", which is a very interesting thing. He was filming a martial arts masterpiece "Ashes of Time" and basically invited all the stars in the Hong Kong film industry. It took several years to make this movie - not really "years", but a long time.
"Ashes of Time"
This epic work was shot for a long, long time, and then the editing started, and the editing continued for a long, long time. The whole process is endless. Finally one day, he thought: "I can't see anything in front of me, only this big production is left." In order to clear up all kinds of chaos, he conceived a movie, which is the "Chungking Express" we saw.
"I'm going to make a quick, somewhat sloppy movie that's easy to shoot, like a push-up. Then I can come back and finish my big production." That's what Wong Kar-wai did. He found the crew and filmed "Chungking Express" in a very short time, shooting it unexpectedly and editing without much effort.
So suddenly, as opposed to the big stuff he was making, he made a funnier, cooler, faster-paced, more rock-and-roll movie. The result was exactly what he wanted. The completion of Chungking Express gave him a new energy to return to his big production Ashes of Time. The two films were released in Hong Kong at about the same time, so this is also a way for the director to give himself a boost of exhausted inspiration. You can feel that desperate, lively energy in this film, which is exactly what the director needed at the time.
If you like this movie, don't miss some of Wong Kar-Wai's other films: his debut feature, Carmen, is a more mainstream story set in Hong Kong. Another "Days of Being Wild" was the first Wong Kar-Wai work I watched, and it also starred a large number of actors.
Tony Leung Chiu-wai, who played the policeman whose residence was sneaked into by Faye Wong in "Chungking Express", also appeared in "Days of Being Wild". His performance was like the Hong Kong version of "American Style".That was the first movie I saw him in, and I wanted to see more of his work. He also appears in Ashes of Time, now in theaters.
After "Chungking Express", Wong Kar-wai's latest movie is called "Fallen Angels". To some extent it is in the same vein as "Chungking Express" because originally "Chungking Express" was composed of three stories like "Pulp Fiction", but it turned out that he liked the two existing stories and found that the two stories had already enough.
"Fallen Angel"
However, if Wong Kar-wai wanted to make three stories, "Fallen Angel" would probably be the third story. So, if you like "Chungking Express", you must watch "Fallen Angel", because it is a continuation of the former.
Now let’s talk about the girls in this movie. The woman wearing the blonde wig in the movie is played by Brigitte Lin. She can probably be said to be the Greta Garbo of Hong Kong, and she fully deserves this title. I think she is one of the most charming stars in the world.
She doesn’t look like Garbo, but she has a sculptured face. In fact, you may have seen her in one of her earlier films, Dao Ma Dan. That movie was a feast for the senses and extremely interesting. She also starred in Jackie Chan's first "Police Story."
"Police Story"
As time went by, her career faded somewhat. But at this time, she and Jet Li starred in the movie "The Swordsman: The Invincible". In it, she plays a male character who practices magical powers, and self-conception is the only way to obtain magical powers.
In this way, she played an almost god-like self-contained male character. The film was a huge success in Hong Kong and across East Asia and turned Brigitte Lin into a major star, but it also led to a series of films in which she began to play god-like characters who combined the wonders and evils of nature.
"The Swordsman: The Invincible"
She has played a role of a woman disguised as a man, but in "The Swordsman: The Invincible" and the sequel "The Resurrection of the Invincible", she actually played the role of a woman dressed in women's clothing man. It's like she has a monopoly on performing such roles in Chinese movies. She is so amazing. There are very few people who can play a god-like role with ease, and she is one of them.
Other movies she starred in that you may be interested in include the one I mentioned earlier, "The Invincible" and its sequel, "The Invincible". She is the heroine of "The Legend of the White-Haired Witch". There is also "Daoma Dan", she also performed very well. In addition, she also gave a wonderful performance in "Ashes of Time". The strange thing is that in this film - this is her last film, after this she basically quit the film industry to get married and have children, so this is her farewell performance - her look is very different from before. Big difference.
"Ashes of Time"
Wong Kar-wai asked her to wear a blonde wig for two reasons. First, he wanted to disguise the Chinese Garbo with sunglasses and a wig, so as to distinguish her from her usual image. Second, the image pays homage to Gena Rowlands' character in John Cassavetes' "Glory."
Wong Kar-wai likes this movie very much, and Brigitte Lin's role is set to be his Glory. The other heroine in the film is Faye Wong, the quirky and precocious girl who sneaks into the policeman's house. This is Faye Wong's film debut. She is actually the most famous rock star in Hong Kong. She has achieved great success in the record industry, and this is her first time acting in a movie.
She has been compared to the Chinese Madonna, who captured everyone's hearts in her first movie appearance. She was nominated for the Hong Kong Film Awards for Best Actress for this film. She's really great in this movie. In addition, she also sang a cover of the Cranberries song in the film.
Also, after watching this movie and hearing the song "California Dreami'", all I could think of was Faye Wong dancing. She is excellent. I don't know anyone who wouldn't fall in love with her after watching this movie.
You need to know some background about Wong Kar-Wai's style and why his films are different from most Hong Kong films.
Almost all Hong Kong movies are either crazy comedies or crazy Sam Raimi-esque fantasy films. In addition, there are action movies like John Woo and Lam Ling-tung.
Of course, Wong Kar-Wai's films share the energy common in Hong Kong cinema, but he also drew inspiration from the French New Wave cinema of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Like the films of Godard, the early films of Claude Chabrol, Eric Rohmer and François Truffaut.
, especially Godard, is his favorite. The style and fun in the film bear his stamp. I must admit, it's a refreshing experience to see traces of the French New Wave in Asian cinema. Regarding New Wave, many people may have heard of the term but don’t know what it exactly means.
In this movement, a group of young French filmmakers subverted films produced by French studios that they considered "bourgeois" (bourgeois). They broke the original rules of genre film shooting, and there was a feeling that the work was perfected and formed during the shooting process.
They are not students of film school, but students of film criticism and film itself. When you see their movies, it's easy to get infected. Just like if a person loves movies enough, he can make good works without special study. This may be Wong Kar-wai's unique contribution to Hong Kong movies.
If you like Wong Kar Wai's films, you must watch some Godard. Some of his films in the genre include the original Knocked Out, starring Jean-Paul Belmondo. "Outlaw", the French name is bandeà part, which is the origin of the name of my production company a band apart. The other is "As You Like It," starring Godard's wife Anna Karina. She has appeared in many Godard films, and Uma Thurman's character in "Pulp Fiction" has some similarities with her. They both have special hairstyles.
"Breathless"
Well, that's it for Chungking Express, the first installment from Rolling Thunder Film Collection (Tarantino's short-lived distribution company). See you next in Jack Hill’s Switchblade Sisters.
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